Department for Transport

Petrol Alternatives: Hydrogen

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on the establishment of 12 hydrogen refuelling stations announced on 27 March 2015.

Andrew Jones: Despite the challenges of establishing an initial network, work on all 12 hydrogen refuelling stations is progressing. The first station will be fully upgraded and publically accessible by the end of this month. We expect the other stations to come on-line between March and November this year. They are located in and around London, in Swindon, Sheffield and South Wales. This will enable vehicle manufacturers to deploy their limited initial fleets of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles and is an important first step towards a national network of 65 refuelling stations identified by UK H2Mobility.

British Transport Police: Finance

Paula Sherriff: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 24236, whether Transport for London's financial contribution to the British Transport Police budget for 2016-17 has been confirmed.

Claire Perry: Transport for London’s financial contribution to the British Transport Police budget for 2016-17 has not yet been confirmed. Discussions will continue throughout March.

British Transport Police: Staff

Paula Sherriff: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many British Transport Police officers will be deployed in 2016-17.

Claire Perry: 3,064 British Transport Police officers will be deployed in 2016-17, an increase of 6.5% from the 2,878 officers who were deployed in 2009-10.

Volkswagen: Staff

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Volkswagen on the provision of additional staffing in the UK during its repair programme.

Andrew Jones: The Government expects Volkswagen to treat its UK consumers fairly and adequately address their concerns. The Secretary of State pressed Volkswagen UK on their plans for the recall of affected vehicles, including for managing the additional workload, in a meeting on 10 December. He urged Volkswagen to resolve swiftly this unacceptable situation for both their customers and the British public. Departmental officials continue to meet regularly with Volkswagen on this issue.

Bus Services: Concessions

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people used the subsidised part of the Number 14 bus service to Peel Park in each of the last 24 months.

Andrew Jones: The provision of bus services that require subsidy are a matter for individual English local authorities, in the light of their other spending priorities. Details of the route, fare tariff, frequency and passenger use of the service would be matters for consideration by the authority concerned.

Roads: Floods

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 21012 on roads: floods, what recent assessment his Department has made of (a) the extent of damage caused by the winter floods, (b) the estimated cost of such damage, (c) the timetable for repairs and (d) relevant projects which have been identified as national priorities.

Andrew Jones: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 22 January 2016, UIN 23151 (http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=23151). The Government is determined to help hard working families and local businesses in flood affected areas as quickly as possible. The Department for Transport continues to work closely with all affected highway authorities as they finalise their assessments to local highway infrastructure prior to final assessment and consideration of what further support and assistance may be provided.

Roads: Investment

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many projects under the Road Investment Strategy are (a) completed, (b) ongoing and (c) still to be launched, by region; how many of those projects which are ongoing are (i) on schedule and (ii) on budget, by region; and how many of those projects which have been completed were on or under budget, by region.

Andrew Jones: North East & YorkshireOf the 112 projects listed in the RIS, 20 of these will be delivered in this region.1 scheme has opened for traffic on schedule.4 schemes are currently in construction – 3 are forecast to complete ahead of schedule and 1 on schedule.Of the remaining 15 planned schemes 1 is forecast ahead of schedule, 1 forecast behind schedule and 13 on schedule. North West17 schemes are included for this region.4 schemes are currently in construction – 2 are forecast to complete ahead of schedule and 2 on schedule.Of the remaining 13 planned schemes 2 are forecast ahead of schedule and 11 on schedule. MidlandsTotal of 26 scheme in this region.3 schemes have opened for traffic, 2 ahead of schedule and 1 behind schedule.6 schemes are currently in construction – 4 are forecast to complete ahead of schedule and 2 on schedule.Of the remaining 17 planned schemes 3 are forecast ahead of schedule and 14 on schedule. South WestTotal of 7 schemes in this region.1 is in construction and is forecast behind schedule.The remaining 6 planned schemes are all on schedule. South East & LondonTotal of 26 schemes in this region.2 are in construction, 1 is forecast ahead of schedule and 1 on scheduleOf the remaining 24 planned projects all are on schedule. EastTotal of 16 schemes.2 are in construction and both are forecast ahead of schedule.The remaining planned 14 schemes, 1 is forecast ahead of schedule and 13 are on schedule. Overall schemes which are under construction are coming in or under budget. For schemes under development we would expect some movement in timescales or costs but overall Highways England is on course to deliver its commitments within the allocated funding.

Aviation: Lasers

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent representations his Department has received on laser pens being pointed at aircraft in flight.

Mr Robert Goodwill: This Department has received 7 representations following the laser incident involving a Virgin Atlantic aircraft travelling from London Heathrow to New York JFK on 14th February 2016.These representations have been concerned with a range of questions around the frequency of laser strikes and whether legislation should be introduced to place a ban on the sale of laser pens. A cross-Whitehall discussion has been arranged to explore these options and consider what further measures could be taken to address the threat from the misuse of laser pens. There is specific legislation prohibiting the use of laser pens against aircraft. Under the Air Navigation Order (2009), it is an offence to direct or shine any light at any aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot of the aircraft

British Transport Police: Finance

Paula Sherriff: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answers of 9 February 2016 to Question 25766 and 11 January 2016 to Question 20570 on British Transport Police: finance, if he will provide a breakdown of the budget by areas of expenditure for (a) 2015-16 and (b) 2016-17.

Claire Perry: The following table provides a breakdown of the British Transport Police’s budget, by areas of expenditure, in 2015-16 and 2016-17:  2015/162016/17 £000s£000sStaff Costs:  Police Officer Pay + overtime165,969165,451PCSO Pay + overtime10,56011,014Police Staff Pay + overtime60,57260,905   Total Staff Costs237,101  237,370Non Staff Costs:  Premises18,76317,481Communications & Computers11,93911,394Transport2,9892,465Travel & Hotels1,8921,845Supplies & Services14,02112,105Capital Charges9,36410,475   Total Non Staff Costs58,968  55,765BTP Authority Budget2,0092,009   Total Expenditure298,078  295,144

British Transport Police: Finance

Paula Sherriff: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answers of 3 February 2016 to Question 24232 and 11 January 2016 to Question 20570 on British Transport Police: finance, how much income from (a) Transport for London, (b) train operating companies, (c) Network Rail and (d) other funding sources is included in the budget for 2016-17; and how much income by funding source (i) is in the budget for and (ii) has been received in 2015-16.

Claire Perry: The following table sets out the British Transport Police’s income by funding source in 2015-16: 2015-16 £000sCore funding (including train operators and Network Rail)209,262Transport for London63,883Non-core funding11,559Other income13,334Total298,038  The split of income between the train operators and Network Rail is commercially sensitive information. Although the total budget for 2016-17 is £295.1 million, the individual components are still to be determined.

Railway Stations: Staff

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many railway stations are (a) staffed and (b) unstaffed.

Claire Perry: The Department for Transport does not collect this information as station staffing is a matter for operators. They are not required to inform us of which stations are staffed beyond the obligations as set out in the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement. We regulate Ticket Office opening times through the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement and a list of which stations have open ticket offices by operator can be seen at http://www.atoc.org/about-atoc/rail-settlement-plan/governance/ (Schedule 17 July 2015).

Railway Stations: Staff

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many railway station ticket offices have (a) been closed and (b) had their opening hours reduced since 2010.

Claire Perry: Since May 2010, 125 railway station ticket offices have had their hours reduced and four have been closed. By contrast, between 2005 and 2010 around 400 railway station ticket offices had their hours reduced and six closures were approved.

Railway Stations: Staff

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of railway station ticket offices that will be closed by (a) 2020 and (b) 2025.

Claire Perry: The Ticketing and Settlement Agreement protects the opening hours of Ticket Offices. If an operator wishes to make such changes to Ticket Office opening times, there is an industry process to follow.

Railway Stations: Staff

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of railway stations that will be unstaffed in (a) 2020 and (b) 2025.

Claire Perry: Station staffing levels are a matter for operators. Whilst we regulate Ticket Office opening times through the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement station staffing levels are a matter for operators as we believe that railway operators themselves are best placed to determine how to meet the needs of their passengers.

Railways: North of England

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of funding to the new northern rail franchise will be provided by (a) subsidies to Northern Rail, (b) investment by Network Rail, (c) passenger revenue and (d) investment by Arriva.

Andrew Jones: We are unable to disaggregate the proportion of funding on the new Northern Rail franchise. I refer the hon Member to my answer of 11 January to the Hon Member for Nottingham South, Lilian Greenwood, (UIN 21124) where the level of subsidies to the Northern franchise was provided and which gives the biggest transformation in decades. These will achieve an unprecedented package of improvements unlike the last Northern franchise in 2004 which included limited plans to invest in services or meet demand, offers better value for the taxpayer and reduces the amount of annual government subsidy required by the Northern franchise by £160 million over nine years (http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=21124).  Network Rail investment is not allocated per franchise. Investment is made on the infrastructure which multiple franchises use and so it is not possible to ‎disaggregate. Predicted Passenger revenue and investment by Arriva are commercially confidentially information that we are unable to provide. Actual Passenger revenue is published retrospectively through annual financial statements.

Aviation: Emergencies

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 25769, on aviation: emergencies, whether he has received recent reports of further developments relating to the unplanned emergency landing of American Airlines flight AA109 at Heathrow.

Mr Robert Goodwill: I received no further reports relating to the flight in question.

M6: Tolls

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Midland Expressway on the proposed sale of the M6 Toll road.

Andrew Jones: The Government has regular discussions with Midland Expressway Limited as the operator of a key part of the country’s road network.

Bus Services

Ruth Smeeth: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of bus routes that have been (a) added and (b) removed since 2010.

Andrew Jones: My Department does not hold this data, as decisions about the provision of bus services, including the frequency, the level of fares or agreed local concessions are mainly a matter for the operator concerned. Where there is not enough demand for a bus route to be commercially viable in its own right, all local authorities have powers to subsidise bus services, Provision of subsidised services is a matter for individual English local authorities, in the light of their other spending priorities. We are very aware however of the importance of bus services to local communities, and in recognition of this we were able to protect Bus Service Operators Grant funding as part of the 2015 Spending Review. We have also protected the national concessionary travel in England for the whole of this Parliament.

Bus Services

Ruth Smeeth: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the potential benefits for bus passengers of municipal ownership of bus companies.

Andrew Jones: There are a few towns and cities that have municipal bus operators, however no analysis has been undertaken by the Department for Transport to understand the potential benefits of those models for passengers.

Railways: Midlands

Ruth Smeeth: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had on devolving responsibility for rail services to the Midlands.

Claire Perry: West Midlands Rail made a submission to the Secretary of State in October 2014 to devolve rail services in the West Midlands region. The Secretary of State confirmed his support in a letter to West Midlands Rail in March 2015 for rail devolution in the West Midlands and set out the expectation that West Midlands Rail will work with the Department for Transport in developing the specification for the re-letting of the next franchise. A public consultation was launched jointly with West Midlands Rail in December 2015 to inform the specification of the next West Midlands franchise. The new West Midlands Franchise is expected to commence in October 2017.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he will issue the draft environmental statement on Phase 2 of High Speed Two (Fradley to Crewe).

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what arrangements are being made for public consultation on the draft environmental statement for Phase Two of High Speed 2 (Fradley to Crewe).

Mr Robert Goodwill: HS2 Ltd is already undertaking environmental surveys, meeting communities and carrying out ground investigation works on the planned line of route as part of its preparation for a Phase 2a hybrid Bill. This early investigation and engagement will inform a draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which we expect to publish for consultation in autumn 2016. The draft report will show the potential environmental impacts of the scheme and indicative steps to mitigate them.

Aviation: Emergencies

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what reports he has received of an emergency landing in Abuja by British Airways flight BA59 from Heathrow to Cape Town on 29 January 2016.

Mr Robert Goodwill: I believe the emergency landing in question actually took place on 25 January. In accordance with EU Regulation 376/2014, safety-related events which endanger or which, if not corrected or addressed, could endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person have to be reported to the Civil Aviation Authority. Consequently the CAA has received a report, and will be reviewing the contents in accordance with the requirements of the Regulation.

Roads: Investment

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2016 to Question 26148, on roads: investment, which two projects are not progressing on or ahead of schedule; and when those projects are now expected to be completed.

Andrew Jones: The two projects referred to in Question 26148 are: A63 Castle Street:  this has a commitment to be complete by March 2021 but the current forecast is for August 2021. The decision to defer was to avoid construction taking place during the year of culture. A30 Temple to Carblake This is being delivered by Cornwall County Council: This was originally due to Open for traffic in December 2016, although we understand from Cornwall County Council that current forecast is February 2017.

Motorcycles: Electric Vehicles

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2016 to Question 26202, how many items of correspondence his Department has received from the public on the extension of the plug-in grant for motor cycles.

Andrew Jones: The last Government announced plans for a new grant to support plug-in motorcycles on 27 March 2015. Since then, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles has answered 38 items of correspondence from 20 members of the public on this issue.

Railway Stations: Staff

Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of staffing of railway stations on (a) passenger safety, (b) passenger assurance, (c) safety of women passengers, (d) disabled passengers, (e) revenue protection and (f) passenger assistance.

Claire Perry: Whilst we regulate Ticket Office opening times through the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement station staffing levels are a matter for operators as we believe that railway operators themselves are best placed to determine how to meet the needs of their passengers. However, it is important that those who need assistance to travel can rely on railway staff to provide this. Each operator is required to participate in the Passenger Assist system which allows disabled passengers to book staff assistance when they require it. We recognise that passengers can feel very strongly about station staffing hours and we expect all operators to take on board the views of stakeholders before taking any proposal to change such hours forward.

Railways: North of England

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on passenger safety of removing guards and introducing driver-controlled operation on Northern Rail services.

Andrew Jones: The safety of passengers and rail users is paramount on the railway and the Department for Transport would never do anything to put passengers at risk. This system has already been in safe use on almost a third of rail services in Great Britain for up to 30 years and we think that it can help to improve the service to passengers. By giving responsibility to the driver to operate the doors, the other staff on board the train could provide a better face-to-face service for passengers. Putting this in the wider context of Northern Rail services, unlike the last Northern franchise in 2004 which included limited plans to invest in services or meet demand, this new franchise will deliver more than 2,000 extra services each week, nearly a 40% increase in capacity and the complete removal of the outdated and unpopular Pacers by the end of 2019.

Regional Airports: Finance

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when each allocated route under the Regional Air Connectivity Fund will be launched.

Mr Robert Goodwill: Funding through the Regional Air Connectivity Fund is now available to the 11 successful bids. The start dates of the successful routes are a matter for the airlines. Flybe have announced start dates for their air services from Norwich to Exeter and Southampton to Lyon which will commence operations in March and May respectively. Funding will only be paid to airlines upon the service being provided.

Great Western Railway Line: Electrification

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what additional capacity for extra stations is planned for East Cardiff as a result of the electrification of the Great Western main line.

Claire Perry: There is currently no additional capacity for extra stations planned for East Cardiff within Network Rail’s current capital spending period (2014-2019).However, I can confirm that the second round for the New Station Fund will begin in Spring 2016. The New Stations Fund is to provide funding for the construction of brand new or reopened stations that are promoted by third parties. £20 million will be available and local authorities who are interested are encouraged to submit bids for the funds.

Electric Vehicles: Finance

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to implement the policy announced on 27 March 2015 by the previous Government on funding to increase the uptake for electric two-wheeled vehicles.

Andrew Jones: The Government remains committed to supporting the UK’s zero emission motorcycle industry. We have been working with stakeholders on the details of a scheme and will make a further announcement in due course.

Railways: Freight

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the total cost to Network Rail was of acquiring the ownership of freight sites under Project Mountfield; and what overall revenue received by Network Rail from those sites in 2014-15.

Claire Perry: This was a commercial matter for Network Rail. I understand that the total cost to Network Rail of acquiring the ownership of freight sites under Project Mountfield was £220 million. The overall revenue figure for 2014/15 was £5.2 million which represents a 5 month period – November to March – given the transfer of sites occurred in October 2014. Network Rail is forecasting this to grow to £16 million per annum by 2017 alongside realising significant operational efficiencies.

Great Western Railway Line: Electrification

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the value of EU funding was for the Great Western Main Line electrification programme on the most recent date for which figures are available.

Claire Perry: I have been informed by Network Rail that as of 26 February 2016, the total value of EU funding that has been awarded for the Great Western Mainline Electrification is € 11,085,000.

Roads: Safety

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress Highways England has made on introducing Regional Road Safety Co-ordinators; and whether Highways England's Regional Incident and Casualty Reduction Plans will include targets for casualty reductions.

Andrew Jones: Regional Safety Coordinators have now been appointed by Highways England. The first appointment was made in January 2016 and the final appointment was made this month. The killed and seriously injured reduction target, which is within the Roads Investment Strategy, is a 40% reduction by 2020 (against 2005 to 2009 average baseline). Highways England's Regional Incident and Casualty Reduction Plans which will provide the disaggregated targets per region will be published in April 2016.

British Rail

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many former employees of British Rail were entitled to receive Safeguarded Travel benefits on the most recent date for which figures are available.

Claire Perry: This information is not held by the Department. This benefit is managed by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), and they may have this information; they can be contacted at rstl@atoc.org.

Bus Service Operators Grant

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 2 November 2010 to the Questions from the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish, Official Report, column 702W, on bus services: finance, if he will place in the Library a copy of the equalities impact assessment carried out by his Department of the decision to reduce the value of the Bus Service Operators Grant by 20 per cent.

Andrew Jones: The equalities impact assessment was published in 2010 and can be found at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/165220-/cuts.pdf.

Transport: Trade Unions

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that transport trade unions retain confidence in his Department's Senior Civil Servants' impartiality.

Claire Perry: The standards of integrity, impartiality and honesty are set out in Departmental policies and guidance, as well as being set out in the Civil Service Code which applies to all Civil Servants. The full text of the Civil Service Code can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-code/the-civil-service-code

Transport: Trade Unions

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the comment by Peter Wilkinson, Director of Rail Passenger Services at his Department, of 22 February 2016, about future industrial relations between his Department and transport unions is accurate.

Claire Perry: The Department for Transport is committed to continuing to work constructively with the Transport Unions in the coming years to deliver the best possible transport services for all passengers, users and taxpayers.

Home Office

Asylum: Syria

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which providers are expected to provide accommodation for the estimated 20,000 Syrian nationals to be resettled under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme by 2020.

Richard Harrington: The UK has been operating resettlement schemes for many years and we already have established and effective networks to accommodate and support resettled people.This is a voluntary scheme whereby local authorities sign up to accept refugees on a voluntary basis. It is up to each individual local authority to decide how best to manage the resettlement of refugees in their area, and they are therefore free to choose their own delivery partners.

Vetting

Steve Rotheram: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidelines her Department produces on the inclusion of non-conviction information or soft information on DBS forms.

Karen Bradley: Statutory guidance is issued under section 113B(4A) of the Police Act 1997 in order to assist chief officers of police in making decisions to provide relevant non-conviction information and other intelligence from local police records for inclusion in enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificates. The Home Office introduced the first edition of this guidance on 10 September 2012 and the most recent revision came into force on 10 August 2015.

British Nationality: Applications

Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time was for an application for British citizenship from submission of initial application to decision in the last 12 months.

James Brokenshire: The average length of time taken to consider an application for British citizenship in the period 1 October 2014 to 30 September 2015 was 108.89 calendar days. This is the most recent period for which statistics on the number of applications considered have been published. The service standard for citizenship applications is to decide 98.5% of cases within 6 months (183 calendar days).

Right of Abode: Veterans

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Questions 24490 and 24491, when her Department expects to have made a decision on whether to grant the right of abode to former British-Hong Kong servicemen.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Questions 24490 and 24491, on right of abode, what the process is for her Department's assessment on granting the right of abode to former British-Hong Kong servicemen.

James Brokenshire: The assessment of the request by former members of the Hong Kong Military Service Corps that they be granted right of abode in the UK is on-going, including discussions at official level with other government departments and a review of archived material on the schemes established between 1990 and 1997. A decision will be made as soon as practicable

Visas: English Language

Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to provide certified copies of identity documents to visa applicants to support their applications to undertake an approved English language test.

James Brokenshire: There is no intention to change the current policy with regards to identity checks for Secure English Language Testing (SELT). Photocopies, whether certified or not, are not accepted when a candidate sits a test. Only original and valid documents are acceptable. This will allow test centre staff to confirm that the document is genuine and relates to the individual who is sitting the test.The only acceptable forms of identification in the UK are:• a passport or travel document;• a EU Identity Card;• a Biometric Residence Permit.

Visas: Iraq

Danny Kinahan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2015 to Question 3343, if she will commission an independent review of the reasons for the refusal of visa applications by people from the Kurdistan region of Iraq over the last three years.

James Brokenshire: There are no plans to commission an independent review into visa refusals of applications made by people from the Kurdistan region of Iraq.UKVI places great importance of the quality of all entry clearance decisions. All applications are assessed against the Immigration Rules. Decision quality is assured both by local managers and as part of the overall Home Office audit and assurance framework to make sure that the correct decision is reached on all visa applications.Further assurance is provided by regular third party inspections and audits.

Immigration Controls

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made in standardising the border control queue measurement system across airports, ferry ports and rail terminals.

James Brokenshire: Guidance on how queue measurements should be taken at UK border controls was updated in November 2015, following a review. This standardises the approach required for measuring queues. This guidance will be placed in the House Library.

Large Goods Vehicles

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lorries were (a) routinely searched and (b) searched for illegal immigrants at English ports in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: This information is not held centrally.Border Force operates a multi-layered search regime using a range of interventions to screen all freight vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed ports.This includes the use of specialist technologies such as Passive Millimetre Wave Imaging devices, heartbeat monitors and carbon dioxide detectors as well as physical searches by sniffer dogs, Border Force staff and specialist search contractors.

Immigration Controls: Finance

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional funding she plans to commit to tackling illegal immigration; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Terrorism: Social Networking

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many social media accounts promoting extremist content were recommended for closure by her Department in each of the last 12 months; and what proportion of such content related to Daesh.

Mr John Hayes: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Asylum: Cardiff

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department was informed of plans by Clearsprings to expand asylum accommodation into East Cardiff.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Asylum: Housing

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much was levied in respect of service credits in each key performance indicator designated met in respect of each Compass region in each year from 2012-13 to 2015-16 to date.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Asylum: Greater Manchester

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what direct funding has been provided to local authorities in Greater Manchester to manage the community impact of asylum placements in those areas.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Cannabis

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26859, if she will update her Department's response to e-petition 104867, on legalisation of medicinal cannabis, in respect of the information on availability of the drug Sativex.

Karen Bradley: The Government’s position is unchanged. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has issued a marketing authorisation and the Home Office has amended the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 to enable Sativex to be available to patients via health care practitioners.

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner: Correspondence

Mr Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to reply to the letters dated 11 December 2015, 14 January and 10 February 2016 from the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner on port security and border controls; and if she will place a copy of her responses in the Library.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

House of Commons Commission

Parliament: Catering

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, what the Commission's policy is on the allocation of service charges paid by card to (a) permanent and (b) contracted canteen and hospitality staff working on the parliamentary estate.

Tom Brake: Service charges paid by debit and credit cards are passed on to catering staff employed by the House of Commons in addition to their wages through the House of Commons payroll system. They are shared equally amongst staff working on a particular day in a given venue.Agency (contracted) workers do not receive service charge amounts as there is no mechanism for these to be paid to the individual as the agencies are paid separately to the House of Commons payroll system.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Pay

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the average hourly earnings of (a) female, (b) male, (c) full-time and (d) part-time employees of his Department were in each of the last five years.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office pays salaries according to a fixed banding structure. Pay rates, including hourly rates, for each band are the same for male and female employees.The average hourly earnings for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office UK based staff, taken as a snapshot on the 31st of December each year, are:  FemaleMaleFull-timePart-time2015£18.63£22.58£20.8317.982014£18.33£22.19£20.5417.742013Data not yet available2012Data not yet available2011Data not yet available Average earnings and average salaries are determined by a number of factors – length of service, levels of performance, promotions, type of work etc but a key factor is the distribution of staff throughout the FCO grading structure.Further information on average salaries of staff is available on pages 6, 10 and 11 of the FCO Diversity & Equality report 2015. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/450587/FFFCO827_Equality_Report_2015_v5.pdfThe figures do not include local staff directly employed by our embassies and missions overseas. To obtain this data would incur disproportionate cost.

South China Sea

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received of deployment by China of surface-to-air missiles on the Paracels Islands in the South China Sea.

Mr Hugo Swire: We are very concerned about Chinese missile deployments on Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, as reported in the media on 17 February. The UK opposes any actions which are likely to increase tensions in the South China Sea, including militarisation. We urge all parties to exercise restraint, to pursue the settlement of disputes peacefully in accordance with international law, and to uphold freedom of navigation and freedom overflight.

Yemen: Armed Conflict

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the intensity of conflict in urban areas in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: A political solution is the best way to bring long-term stability to Yemen and end the conflict. We welcomed and fully supported the UN facilitated talks held in Switzerland in December 2015 and the commitment to engage in a new round of talks in the near future. We are working closely with the UN to encourage parties to engage in good faith, without preconditions in future talks. We are encouraging all parties to reinstate a ceasefire at the next round of talks and are working closely with the UN to achieve this.

Yemen: Military Intervention

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support Saudi Arabia's internal inquiry into war crimes in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We encourage Saudi Arabia to investigate allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law, and for their investigations to be thorough and conclusive. Saudi Arabia has its own internal procedures for investigations and they announced more detail of how they investigate such incidents on 31 January. This will include an independent team of skilled specialists who will assess and verify incidents of concern.

Yemen: Refugees

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the UK is taking to prevent a refugee crisis in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has committed £85 million. We have so far helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis, providing food, medical supplies, water and emergency shelter to those most in need. A political solution is the best way to bring long-term stability to Yemen and end the current conflict. We are actively supporting the UN facilitated peace process and are working closely with the UN to encourage parties to engage in good faith and without preconditions in future talks.

Belarus: Capital Punishment

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Belarusian counterpart on recent death penalty sentences handed down by Belarusian courts and the position of the Belarusian government on the abolition of the death penalty.

Mr David Lidington: The UK continues to press Belarus to implement a moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards abolition.Officials from London and in the Embassy in Minsk make representations to the Government of Belarus at each available opportunity. Most recently the Director General, Political at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office visited Minsk and spoke about the need for a moratorium on the death penalty during discussions with the Deputy Foreign Minister, Ms Alena Kupchina, on 9 February 2016.The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office is funding a conference on the death penalty to help stimulate debate about the advantages of a moratorium and abolition within the Government of Belarus and civil society.The UK supports statements and demarches by the European Union on all death penalties handed down in Belarus.

Yemen: Counter-terrorism

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps the Government has taken to (a) monitor and (b) counter the activities of Al Qaeda and Daesh in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We continue to work with regional and international partners to tackle the threat posed by terrorist organisations including Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Daesh-Yemen. For operational reasons we cannot comment in detail on this activity.

Yemen: Islamic State

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of Daesh fighters in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The political crisis in Yemen remains extremely concerning, particularly the risk that terrorist organisations such as Daesh-Yemen continue to exploit the deteriorating situation to consolidate their support base and capabilities in Yemen. Throughout 2015, we saw an expansion of Daesh-Yemen, albeit starting from a small base. We continue to work with regional and international partners to tackle the threat posed by terrorist organisations including Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Daesh-Yemen. For operational reasons we cannot comment in detail on this activity.

Diplomatic Service: Scotland

Ronnie Cowan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many foreign consulates or diplomatic offices have closed in Scotland since 2010.

Mr David Lidington: One such mission has closed in Scotland since 2010.

Islamic State: Genocide

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for the Government's policies of the recognition of acts constituting genocide in the European Parliament's Resolution, Systematic mass murder of religious minorities by ISIS, agreed on 4 February 2016.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: European Parliament resolutions are not binding and do not create legal obligations on member states.It is the long-standing policy of successive governments that any judgements on whether genocide has occurred should be a matter for the international judicial system rather than governments or other non-judicial bodies. Our approach is to seek an end to all violations of International Humanitarian Law, and to prevent their further escalation, irrespective of whether these violations fit the definition of specific international crimes.Ultimately, the best way of preventing future atrocities is to defeat Daesh and its violent ideology. That’s why the UK is playing a leading role in a Global Coalition of more than 65 countries and international organisations to respond to Daesh’s inhumanity.

Yemen: Peace Negotiations

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent diplomatic steps the Government has taken to support the reopening of peace talks in Yemen and the establishment of a ceasefire.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We welcomed and fully supported the UN facilitated talks held in Switzerland in December 2015 and the commitment to engage in a new round of talks in the near future. We are working closely with the UN to encourage parties to engage in good faith without preconditions in future talks. We are encouraging all parties to reinstate a ceasefire at the next round of talks and are working closely with the UN to achieve this. This is being achieved through Ambassadorial and Ministerial engagement with the Yemeni government and the UN. I spoke to the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed (IOCA) at the start of February.

Israel: Palestinians

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports his Department has received on the frequency of rocket attacks from the West Bank into Israel in the last 12 months.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We have not received reports of incidents of rocket fire from the West Bank into Israel . However, military groups in Gaza (including Hamas’ military wing), conduct test-firing of rockets into the Mediterranean on a regular basis. There have also been reports of rocket or mortar fire from Gaza towards Israel.

Mohammed al-Qeeq

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has received on the detainment of Mohammed al-Qeeq in Israel.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We are concerned about Mr Muhammed al Qiq’s case. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has received written parliamentary questions from the other place about this case. We have also received a number of letters from Members of Parliament on behalf of their constituents, as well as letters and e-mails from Non-Governmental Organisations and members of the public.

Middle East: Islamic State

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Saudi Arabian government on tackling the spread of Daesh in the Middle East.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We regularly hold discussions with Saudi Arabia about the threat from Daesh. Saudi Arabia has been at the forefront of international efforts to defeat Daesh and was one of the first countries to participate in air strikes against Daesh in Syria. The King and the religious establishment continue clearly and publicly to condemn Daesh and its poisonous ideology, and to emphasise that Daesh do not in any way represent the teachings of Islamic faith.The Saudi Arabian Government is working to reduce the threat that religious extremists pose in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. It has a comprehensive set of laws in place to prevent terrorist financing, which it enforces vigorously. We welcome the recent announcement of the creation of the Islamic Military Coalition which, among other things, aims to help Islamic countries to counter the threat from terrorism. Regional and Arab countries are best placed to tackle extremism and confront Daesh on the ground.

Intelligence Services

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure there are sufficient safeguards to respect individual privacy in place in respect of intelligence gathered by GCHQ.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: GCHQ’s intelligence gathering powers are authorised under legislation, including the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014, and the Intelligence Services Act 1994. Its work, including its respect for privacy, is scrutinised by the Intelligence and Security Committee, the Interception of Communications Commissioner and the Intelligence Services Commissioner.

EU Staff

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2015 to Question 1205, how many UK nationals are currently employed by the European Commission; and what proportion of the total number of Commission employees they represent.

Mr Philip Hammond: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

EU Staff

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK nationals work at administrator grade staff level in the General Secretariat of the European Council; and what proportion of the total number of General Secretariat employees they represent.

Mr Philip Hammond: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

EU Staff

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK nationals work for the European External Action Service; and what proportion of the total number of employees in that service they represent.

Mr Philip Hammond: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Overseas Aid

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much and what proportion of his Department's overseas development assistance budget his Department spent was subject to the International Development Act 2002 in each of the last three years.

Mr David Lidington: Holding answer received on 26 February 2016



All of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocation has been subject to the International Development Act since its enactment. This has amounted to: £321 million in financial year 2013/14; £344 million in financial year 2014/15 and is estimated to be over £400 million for the financial year 2015/16.

EU Staff

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK nationals work at administrator grade staff level in the European Parliament; and what proportion of the total number of that parliament's employees they represent.

Mr Philip Hammond: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

European Council

Mr David Nuttall: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016 will be added to his Department's Treaty Series 2016.

Mr David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Economic and Monetary Union

Mr David Nuttall: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the commitments by the UK not to create obstacles to, but facilitate such deepening of the Eurozone, to sincere cooperation with the Eurozone, not to impede the implementation of legal acts directly linked to the functioning of the euro area to refrain from measures which could jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of economic and monetary union contained in the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016 are legally binding; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

European Council

Mr David Nuttall: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in which court the commitment in point 7 of Section A of the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council on 18 and 19 February 2016, to incorporate the substance of the section into the EU Treaties is enforceable.

Mr David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

UK Membership of EU

Mr Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2016 to Question 27033, which governments within the EU support further political integration.

Mr David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Cabinet Office

Civil Servants: Ethnic Groups

Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of Senior Civil Service roles are occupied by people from BME backgrounds.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of the Civil Service workforce is from BME backgrounds.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of applicants to the Civil Service Fast Stream are (a) from BME backgrounds and (b) successful and from BME backgrounds.

Matthew Hancock: In 2015, the proportion of senior civil servants from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds was 4.1%; and the proportion of the whole civil service workforce from BAME background was 10.6% as I set out in my recent speech https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/addressing-inequality-in-the-public-sector-and-beyond-matt-hancock-speech.While BAME representation throughout the civil service workforce is consistent with the economically active population, in order for the civil service to reflect diversity of Modern Britain we need to do more to increase BAME representation in the senior civil service. We have increased capacity of summer diversity internships and the Positive Action Pathway programme and will soon launch ‘Accelerate’ (a development programme for SCS from BAME backgrounds to reach the most senior grades within the Civil Service). We anticipate that over time these and other initiatives will result in an increase in the proportion of the SCS coming from BAME backgrounds.The proportion of applicants and appointments from BME backgrounds to the Civil Service Fast Stream from 2012 to 2014 are listed in the table below.Data on the 2015 cohort is due to be released later this year in the 2015 Fast Stream Annual Report.Proportion from an ethnic minority background – Civil Service Fast Stream (all schemes)ApplicantsAppointments201419.4%14.2%201318%13.6%201216.9%12.8%

Department for Communities and Local Government: Lobbying

Richard Burden: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions his Department has had with the Department for Communities and Local Government on the applicability of that Department's anti-sock puppet clause pilot scheme to other departments.

Matthew Hancock: Cabinet Office officials undertook several discussions with DCLG on this matter. The discussions were varied, extensive and frequent, and covered both development and implementation.

Electoral Register: Credit Reference Agencies

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) guidance his Department issues and (b) regulations are in place on the provision of electoral roll data to credit reference agencies.

John Penrose: The Electoral Commission provides detailed guidance to Electoral Registration Officers on access and supply of the full electoral register, including by credit reference agencies.The regulations on the supply of electoral roll data to credit reference agencies are set out in The Representation of the People (England and Wales)(Amendment) Regulations 2002. Under Regulation 114, credit reference agencies registered under Part III of the Consumer Credit Act and carrying on the business of providing credit reference services may only use the full electoral register for specified purposes; namely for checking a person’s identity if they apply for credit, and for the prevention of money laundering fraud. Electoral Registration Officers are entitled to charge credit reference agencies a small fee for copies of the full register, to cover administration costs.

Cabinet Office: Ministerial Policy Advisers

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the (a) policy and (b) other responsibilities are of each special adviser in his Department.

Matthew Hancock: The Code of Conduct for Special Advisers sets out the role of special advisers and describes the range of activities they may undertake. Copies of the Code of Conduct are available in the Libraries of the House and on-line athttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/468340/CODE_OF_CONDUCT_FOR_SPECIAL_ADVISERS_-_15_OCTOBER_2015_FINAL.pdf

Ministerial Policy Advisers: Part-time Employment

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how the Government plans to ensure that any special advisers working part-time for Government and part-time for a campaign do not make use of departmental or government resources in their campaign work.

Matthew Hancock: The Cabinet Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Senior Civil Servants: Greater London

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of Senior Civil Servants were based in London in each year since 2010.

Matthew Hancock: The Cabinet Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department for Transport: Senior Civil Servants

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will investigate whether the reported comments of 22 February 2016 by Peter Wilkinson, director of Rail Passenger Services at the Department for Transport, are in breach of the Civil Service code.

Matthew Hancock: The Cabinet Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

UK Membership of EU: Referendums

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many special advisers from which departments have notified the Prime Minister's Parliamentary Private Secretary that they will be campaigning outside office hours for the UK to leave the EU.

Matthew Hancock: The Cabinet Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Attorney General

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

Dr Julian Lewis: To ask the Attorney General, what the CPS's policy is on seeking prosecutions of former members of paramilitary and terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland for attacks made against members of the armed forces during the Troubles; and if he will make a statement.

Robert Buckland: Criminal cases in Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland. Its decisions are independently made and it reports to the devolved authorities.In relation to offences involving attacks against armed forces in England and Wales, all cases referred to the CPS are reviewed in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors by specialist prosecutors within the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division. There is no specific policy in respect of prosecutions of this type and they will be dealt with in the usual way.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Written Questions

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his Department's policy is on providing direct web links to information requested in written parliamentary questions in the Answers to those questions.

Joseph Johnson: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not have a specific policy on the provision of web links. Parliamentary Questions are answered according to the preferred approach of each individual Minister.

Skills Funding Agency: Staff

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many full-time equivalent staff there were in the Skills Funding Agency in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15.

Nick Boles: The table below outlines the total number of staff employed by full-time equivalence in the Skills Funding Agency: 2010-1114592011-1215802012-1312002013-1411422014-15788 Staffing numbers have reduced as part of the Civil Service reform programme. Alongside this, the Skills Funding Agency has prioritised its resources to focus on 3 million apprenticeship starts. The latest Statistical First Release shows an upward trajectory of apprenticeship starts.

Apprentices: Tourism

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many apprenticeships were created in the tourism sector in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13 and (d) 2014-15.

Nick Boles: The number of apprenticeship starts in the ‘Leisure, Travel and Tourism’ Sector Subject Area by academic year are shown in Table 1. Table 1 - Apprenticeship starts, 2010/11 to 2014/15Sector Subject Area2010/112011/122012/132013/142014/15Leisure, Travel and Tourism21,59019,77014,36011,35013,070 We are committed to reaching 3 million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. There were 2.4 million apprenticeship starts over the previous Parliament. Apprenticeships are paid jobs and their availability is dependent on employers offering opportunities and hiring apprentices. The figures in the table are found in the apprenticeship data library:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/493777/apprenticeships-starts-by-geography-learner-demographics-and-sector-subject-area.xls

Teachers: Standards

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what types of evidence he plans will be considered for assessment for the Teaching Excellence Framework.

Joseph Johnson: The Higher Education Green Paper proposed that judgements about teaching excellence will be made by a panel of independent experts, considering both a common set of core metrics and additional contextual data, both quantitative and qualitative, submitted by the provider. The core metrics proposed in the Green Paper are derived from quality assured national datasets and would measure employment outcomes, retention and student satisfaction. We are considering the responses to the consultation and intend to publish a further technical consultation which will explore how the evidence should be used.

Student Opportunity Fund

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 22794, how many beneficiaries of the Student Opportunity Fund there were in each of the last five years.

Joseph Johnson: The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) allocates the Student Opportunity Fund to Higher Education providers as part of the teaching grant. Although the different elements of the fund are calculated on the basis of the number of students within an institution with particular characteristics, institutions have been able to use the funding in whichever way they feel is most appropriate for their students. Therefore, there is no centrally collected data on the numbers of students supported by the fund.

Adult Education: Finance

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Skills of 2 February 2016, Official Report, column 764, what proportion and amount of funding for adult skills is planned to be allocated to (a) apprenticeship provision and (b) non-apprenticeship provision in (i) 2016-17, (ii) 2017-18, (iii) 2018-19 and (iv) 2019-20.

Nick Boles: The attached table shows the amount of funding for adult skills allocated in 2016-17 and indicative allocations for 2017-18 to 2019-20 for apprenticeship and non-apprenticeship provision. These figures are taken from the Skills Funding Letter 2016-17 Skills funding letter: April 2016 to March 2017 - Publications - GOV.UK.



Funding for adult skills
(Word Document, 16.15 KB)

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many small business groups and coalitions responded to the Government's consultation, Devolving Sunday trading rules, published on 5 August 2015; and what (a) number and (b) proportion of those respondents answered (i) yes, (ii) no and (iii) otherwise to Question 1 in that consultation.

Anna Soubry: The Department does not hold full data from this consultation broken down by specific question as a large portion of respondents chose to respond in their own words rather than addressing the consultation questions directly, and/or did not indicate the type of organisation they represented.

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what (a) number and (b) proportion of those respondents to his Department's consultation, Devolving Sunday trading rules, published on 5 August 2015, answered (i) yes, (ii) no and (iii) otherwise to Question 1 in that consultation.

Anna Soubry: The Department does not hold full data from this consultation broken down by specific question as a large portion of respondents chose to respond in their own words rather than addressing the consultation questions directly, and/or did not indicate the type of organisation they represented.

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Martin Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many small businesses responded to the Government's consultation, Devolving Sunday trading rules, published on 5 August 2015; and what (a) number and (b) proportion of those respondents answered (i) yes, (ii) no and (iii) otherwise to Question one of that consultation.

Anna Soubry: The Department does not hold full data from this consultation broken down by specific question as a large portion of respondents chose to respond in their own words rather than addressing the consultation questions directly, and/or did not indicate the type of organisation they represented.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Senior Civil Servants

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of senior civil servants in his Department are women.

Joseph Johnson: Within the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills HQ, 46% of senior civil service posts are held by women. At Director General and Director level, 51% of posts are held by women.

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many (a) business representative bodies, (b) central government bodies, (c) local authorities, (d) trade union or staff associations, (e) charity and social enterprises, (f) large businesses, (g) medium-sized businesses, (h) small businesses, (i) micro businesses, (j) convenience stores, (k) shop workers, (l) legal representatives, (m) religious organisations, (n) individuals and (o) other bodies responded to the consultation on Sunday trading devolution; how many responses of each category (i) supported and (ii) opposed devolution.

Anna Soubry: The Department does not hold full data from this consultation broken down by specific question as a large portion of respondents chose to respond in their own words rather than addressing the consultation questions directly, and/or did not indicate the type of organisation they represented.

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Mr David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of responses to the Sunday trading consultation supported the devolution of Sunday trading hours.

Mr David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many (a) business representative bodies, (b) central government bodies, (c) charity and social enterprises, (d) individuals, (e) large businesses, (f) legal representatives, (g) local authorities, (h) medium-sized businesses, (i) micro businesses, (j) religious organisations, (k) small businesses, (l) trade union or staff associations and (m) other bodies responded to the consultation on Sunday trading devolution; how many of each category (i) supported and (ii) opposed devolution; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: The Department does not hold full data from this consultation broken down by specific question as a large portion of respondents chose to respond in their own words rather than addressing the consultation questions directly, and/or did not indicate the type of organisation they represented.

Sunday Trading: Devolution

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations were received from (a) USDAW, (b) other trade unions, (c) ACS and (d) other trade and workers' associations in response to the government's consultation, Devolving Sunday trading rules, published on 5 August 2015; and what (i) number and (ii) proportion of those respondents answered (A) yes, (B) no and (C) otherwise to Question 1 in that consultation.

Anna Soubry: The Government received 7,171 responses to the consultation, though a significantly smaller number used the standard online consultation form and addressed the questions directly. USDAW responded to the consultation and its representatives met with officials during the course of the consultation. USDAW answered no to Question 1 in the consultation. TUC and the National Union of General and Municipal Workers (GMB) also responded to the consultation and their representatives met with officials during the course of the consultation. UNISON responded to the consultation but did not meet with officials. All three (100%) responded no to Question 1 in the consultation. ACS responded to the consultation and its representatives met with officials during the course of the consultation answered no to Question 1 in the consultation.The department does not hold full data from this consultation broken down by respondent type as a large portion of respondents chose to respond in their own words rather than addressing the consultation questions directly, and/or did not indicate the type of organisation they represented.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Video Conferencing

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of investing in video-conferencing facilities to facilitate split-site working by staff in his Department.

Joseph Johnson: Video conferencing is used across the Department as a tool for keeping in touch with colleagues split across numerous sites, with around 1,500 meetings held by video-conferencing every month.

Domestic Appliances: Fires

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent representations he has received on faulty tumble dryers causing fires; and when his Department was first made aware of safety concerns related to such tumble dryers.

Anna Soubry: Manufacturers, distributors and retailers are legally required to inform their Local Authority Trading Standards Department if they have placed unsafe products on the market under the General Product Safety Regulations 1995. Trading Standards work with the businesses concerned to manage any corrective actions accordingly.In December 2015, Trading Standards made my Department aware of the safety concerns relating to particular brands of tumble dryer, as part of the formal notification procedure of the EU Rapid Alert system for unsafe products. In addition, my Department has received correspondence from consumers of these products, who have been directed to Trading Standards.

Business: Advisory Services

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many businesses have signed agreements with the Business Growth Service in (a) the UK and (b) Kirklees.

Anna Soubry: 9,111 businesses in the UK, and 90 businesses in Kirklees, signed agreements with the Business Growth Service since the launch of the service in December 2014.

ACAS: Telephone Services

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25611, on employment: telephone services, if he will commission an assessment of the outcome for workers of the transfer of the functions of the Pay and Work Rights Helpline to Acas from 1 April 2015.

Nick Boles: There is currently no plan to undertake a formal assessment of the outcome for workers regarding the transfer of the functions of the Pay and Work Rights Helpline to Acas.Acas regularly monitor and test the service to help continually improve the customer journey.

Local Enterprise Partnerships: Social Enterprises

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with local enterprise partnerships on supporting social enterprises.

Anna Soubry: Cabinet Office officials have been working with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) - including the hon. Member’s LEP, Leeds City Region - and the Big Lottery Fund to agree European Social Fund match-funding arrangements. This funding will invest in local projects tackling the root causes of poverty, promoting social inclusion, local jobs and growth. Social enterprises and charities are well placed to get involved in these opportunities.

Post Offices

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reasons the process for including Citizens Advice as the statutory consumer watchdog differs for changes to Crown post offices outside compared with those within the Crown Transformation Programme.

George Freeman: The arrangements in place for the Crown Transformation Programme were specific to this significant programme which encompassed the entire Crown network and which was a directly government funded investment programme. How Post Office handles business as usual changes to its branch estate is an operational matter for it. Post Office has a Code of Practice for changes to the network (such as relocations of branches) and this includes a role for Citizen’s Advice.

Rio Tinto Alcan: Lochaber

Ian Blackford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he (a) has had and (b) plans to have with Rio Tinto on that company's strategic review of its smelter operations in Lochaber.

Anna Soubry: The future of the Lochaber smelter is largely a devolved matter, but the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has discussed Rio Tinto’s strategic review with the Scottish Government and will maintain these contacts as the situation develops. There have been no direct contacts with Rio Tinto, but BIS officials have discussed this matter with the Aluminium Federation, which represents the aluminium industry in the UK.

Small Businesses: Government Assistance

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with social enterprises and other small and medium-sized enterprises about the potential effect of the closure of the Growth Accelerator Programme.

Anna Soubry: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills continues to have discussions with businesses and their representatives. They have told us that there is strong appetite in the private sector to fill the gap in the market and develop sustainable offers of support.

Groceries Code Adjudicator

Corri Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what (a) timetable and (b) process his Department plans for its forthcoming review of the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator.

Anna Soubry: The Groceries Code Adjudicator Act 2013 requires the Department to review the performance of the Groceries Code Adjudicator every three years. The first review will cover the period up to 31 March 2016 and will be carried out later this year.We are currently considering options and making final decisions on the timetable and process for the review. These will be published shortly.

Groceries Code Adjudicator: EU Countries

Corri Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress has been made on introducing a Europe-wide groceries adjudicator.

Anna Soubry: On 29 January, the European Commission published its report on the existing regulatory and voluntary frameworks for tackling unfair trading practices in the food supply chain. The Commission concluded that there would be no added value in a specific harmonised regulatory approach at EU level at this stage.The Commission will continue to monitor the situation and, before the end of its mandate, it will re-assess its position on harmonised regulation.

Axle Weights: Weighing Equipment

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has taken to ensure the (a) maintenance of and (b) appropriate location for public weighbridges.

Joseph Johnson: a) Public weighbridges are regulated under the Weights and Measures Act 1985 and the Non Automatic Weighing Instrument Regulations 2000. It is the responsibility of the owner of the instrument to ensure that it is maintained and continues to operate in line with the legal requirements for accuracy. Local Weights and Measures Authorities (LWMAs) are responsible for enforcement of weights and measures requirements and undertake enforcement using a risk based approach. The National Measurement and Regulation Office (NMRO) issues risk ratings for equipment for use by LWMAs which is updated each year and have rated weighbridges as high risk equipment. b) The operation of public weighbridges is a commercial service and their location will be a commercial decision for the operators concerned.

Axle Weights: Weighing Equipment

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the number of operational public weighbridges was by region in each of the last 10 years.

Joseph Johnson: This information is not held centrally by the Department but each Local Weights and Measures Authority will have current information as they are responsible under Section 18 of the Weights and Measures Act 1985 for the issuing of certificates to public weighbridge operators. Information on the current location of individual public weighbridges can be found on Local Authorities’ websites from the following link https://www.gov.uk/find-weighbridge.

Higher Education: UK Membership of EU

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of a UK withdrawal from the EU on the (a) number of EU students in the UK university student body, (b) ability of UK universities to recruit EU staff into the academic workforce and (c) number of UK students participating in the European exchange programme.

Joseph Johnson: The Prime Minister has delivered on the commitment to renegotiate a better deal for the United Kingdom in Europe.Based on this deal the Government has reached a clear view: The UK will be safer, stronger and better off by remaining a member of a reformed European Union.I recently spoke about the important academic links between the UK and the rest of the EU. The speech is available on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/making-britain-the-best-place-in-the-world-for-science.

Aluminium: Government Assistance

Ian Blackford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department plans to take to extend the levels of support being given to the aluminium industry to the same level as that given to the steel industry.

Anna Soubry: The actions taken by the Government to support the steel sector, for example in respect of support for Energy Intensive Industries (EIIs) with their energy costs, will also benefit the UK aluminium industry. We have paid nearly £2.8 million compensation to date to companies producing aluminium since the EU Emissions Trading System and Carbon Price Support schemes began.We look forward to the Aluminium Federation’s constructive involvement in establishing the Metals Council, which will work with Government to address opportunities and challenges facing the UK metals sectors. The Metals Council is an outcome from the Metals Strategy, to which both the Aluminium and Steel sectors provided key contributions.

Aviation: Noise

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when the Government will introduce incentives for the adoption of new technologies designed to manage noise from aircraft on the ground.

Anna Soubry: The Government is supporting investment in new technologies to reduce aircraft noise through grants for R&D supported by the Aerospace Technology Institute. The Government has committed £1.95 billion for aerospace R&D to 2025/26, bringing the total joint Government and industry funding commitment since 2013 to £3.9 billion. So far, 20 projects, worth £136 million, are directly concerned with new technologies to reduce noise from aircraft engines, propellers, rotors, wings and landing gear. These projects are focused on demanding international environmental targets and ensure UK aerospace companies are leading the technological evolution to achieve these.

Innovate UK: Grants

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his policy is on the future of the Innovate UK Smart funding programme.

Joseph Johnson: Innovate UK is tasked with increasing growth and productivity across the UK through supporting business-led innovation. The number of different programmes it delivers has increased over the years and in some cases have become confusing for businesses, especially for SMEs, to navigate. Consequently, Innovate UK is currently simplifying its support to innovative businesses. Innovate UK intends to publish new Strategy and Delivery plans, which will outline its funding approaches and programmes.

Research Councils: Finance

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how his Department decides on allocation of funding to research councils; and what assessment he has made of the grounds for significant changes being made to the relative size of allocations to each research council compared to allocations in previous years.

Joseph Johnson: The allocations will be published shortly. As in previous years, the allocations will be made by ministers following discussions with BIS delivery partners.

Higher Education

Danny Kinahan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the variation in the number of teaching hours provided to and fees paid by university students.

Joseph Johnson: No such assessment currently exists. However, in our Green Paper: “Fulfilling our potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice,” we proposed that the new Teaching Excellence Framework could consider information about levels of teaching intensity and contact hours. We will be setting out our response to the Green Paper in due course.

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many responses his Department received to the devolving Sunday trading rules consultation.

Anna Soubry: The Department received 7,171 responses to that consultation.

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many responses to the Government's consultation on devolving Sunday trading rules were opposed to any relaxation of Sunday trading rules.

Anna Soubry: The consultation was about a specific proposal to devolve a power to extend trading hours on Sunday to local areas. The consultation did not ask respondents whether they supported or were opposed to a general relaxation of Sunday trading rules. The Department does not, therefore, hold information on this issue.

UK Membership of EU: Government Assistance

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for projects supported by State Aid agreements of the UK leaving the EU.

Anna Soubry: The Government's view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off in a reformed European Union.As required by the EU Referendum Act 2015, the Government is committed to producing clear information, ahead of the Referendum, on: the outcome of the renegotiation, rights and obligations in European Union law, an assessment of alternatives to membership, and the process for leaving.

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government took to ensure that its response to its consultation, Sunday Trading, published in August 2015, took substantive account of the range of responses to that consultation.

Anna Soubry: The Government has conscientiously taken into account all the responses and evidence submitted during the consultation in formulating our proposals. .

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many officials of his Department were employed specifically to assist with negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement

Anna Soubry: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Sunday Trading: Public Consultation

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reasons the Government has not yet published its analysis of responses to its consultation, Sunday Trading, published in August 2015.

Anna Soubry: The Government published its response to the consultation on 9 February, in which it sets out its analysis of responses.

Electricity: Prices

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reason the report commissioned by his Department from Ecofys on international electricity prices has not yet been published; when the Government plans to publish that report; and whether that report found that electricity price increases for energy intensive industries as a result of climate policies will be larger in the UK than any other country.

Anna Soubry: The Department is currently reviewing the findings of the Ecofys international energy price comparisons report. We are considering publication options but the report found that the increase in electricity prices for energy intensive industries varies considerably by country depending on their climate change policy landscape.

Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2014.

Anna Soubry: There are no plans to make any amendments to the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004.

Apprentices: Degrees

Nick Thomas-Symonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which universities have (a) introduced and (b) committed to introduce degree apprenticeships since September 2015; how many such degree apprenticeships each such university has introduced since September 2015; and in which industries those degree apprenticeships have been in.

Nick Boles: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Graduates: Pay

Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the distribution of the graduate premium by each decile of graduate lifetime earnings.

Joseph Johnson: The most recent BIS commissioned research (Walker and Zhu, 2013[1]) shows that, on average, a male graduate will earn £168,000 more, and a female graduate £252,000 more, over their lifetime than someone without a degree but with 2 or more A-levels, net of income tax, VAT, National Insurance and student repayments (2012 prices). Walker & Zhu (2013) also provide a breakdown of these figures across the graduate earnings distribution, as set out in Table 1.[2]Table 1: Graduate premiums from completion of a first degree for individuals by gender across earnings deciles Individual Net Present ValueGraduate earnings deciles Average1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9thMale168173168163161167157154166206Female252247240241241245255252285265Measurement unit £1,000  [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/229498/bis-13-899-the-impact-of-university-degrees-on-the-lifecycle-of-earnings-further-analysis.pdf[2] As before, these estimates are net of tax and other costs, but also vary due to effect of income tax thresholds and the progressive nature of the student loan repayment model. For example you can see male graduates in the 1st and 2nd earnings deciles have higher graduate premiums than those between the 3rd and 8th earnings deciles as they are less likely to repay all of their student loan and will pay proportionately less income tax, National Insurance and VAT.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of how much of his Department's staff expenditure was specifically related to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Olympic Games 2012: Sunday Trading

Karl McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment the Government made of the effect on (a) high streets, (b) small businesses and (c) post offices of the temporary changes to Sunday trading laws during the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Anna Soubry: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Apprentices

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the implementation of the Prime Minister's commitment of April 2015 to utilise the proceeds of the £227 million fine on Deutsche Bank to create a new three-year fund to create 50,000 apprenticeships.

Nick Boles: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Further Education: Pay

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the heads of further education colleges about the implications for recruitment and retention of college staff of the Government's restrictions on public sector pay increases.

Nick Boles: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the expenditure of his Department which specifically related to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Further Education: Pay

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effects on recruitment of further education staff of the Government's restrictions on public sector pay increases.

Nick Boles: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many representations he has received from (a) European and (b) American officials pertaining to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement in each of the last 12 months.

Anna Soubry: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Staff

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent estimate his Department has made of the average cost of each official of his Department based at (a) St Paul's Place, Sheffield and (b) 1 Victoria Street, London.

Joseph Johnson: The average salary costs (incl. pension and National Insurance contributions) for an official in Sheffield is £46,698, whilst the average salary costs (incl. pension and National Insurance contributions) for an official in London is £58,910. This can largely be explained by the London-weighted salary differences and the differences in grade mix of staff in Sheffield and London. For example, almost 9% of London-based staff are SCS (costing around £18m in salaries), whilst only 2% of staff in Sheffield are SCS (costing around £0.5m in salaries).

Department for International Development

Drugs: Research

Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, who the Government plans to send as its representative to the discussions on research and development of pharmaceuticals at the World Health Organisation meeting in March 2016.

Mr Nick Hurd: As outlined in the response to PQ (House of Commons written), Hansard ref 27784; the meeting at the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been postponed to May 2016 and arrangements about the meeting are at an early stage. DFID officials are in discussion with WHO senior managers about UK representation at the meeting.

Malawi: Malnutrition

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance  her Department plans to provide to help tackle hunger in Malawi.

Mr Nick Hurd: DFID has a significant programme of ongoing support in health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation and economic development, particularly in rural areas and with the private sector, for growth, jobs, incomes and food insecurity in Malawi. We support increasing access to justice for women and vulnerable groups, accountability and governance reforms. The UK was one of the first development partners to respond to Malawi’s international appeal for emergency aid in October 2015. The UK has now committed £14.5m through partners including the World Food Programme, UNICEF and an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO) consortium led by Save the Children. This support includes: Food for over 800,000 people, including pre-positioning of food, nutrition supplies and livestock vaccines.Cash transfers for up to 450,000 people who live near functioning markets but do not have the means to purchase foodMass screening of up to 800,000 children to identify urgent nutritional support needsSpecialist supplies for over 140,000 children and others suffering from acute malnutritionVital protection support to vulnerable people, including women and girls, in displacement and refugee camps

Malawi: Food

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the availability of food to people in Malawi.

Mr Nick Hurd: Each year the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) assesses food availability in Malawi and publishes the official figure for those who are likely to be food insecure over the year. This year, at over 2.8m people, the figure is the highest for a decade. The UK was one of the first development partners to respond to Malawi’s international appeal for emergency aid in October 2015. The UK has now committed £14.5m, which includes provision of food for over 800,000 people, mass screening of up to 800,000 children to identify urgent nutritional support needs and specialist nutrition supplies for over 140,000 children and others suffering from acute malnutrition. DFID continues to monitor the situation, through formal assessments, community consultation and ongoing engagement with partners. Maize prices are high and increasing and food availability on markets is unpredictable. The Government of Malawi has released maize from its reserves and has bought additional supplies from Zambia, although there are ongoing concerns about effectiveness of its distribution. DFID continues to work with partners to help Malawi break the cycle of recurrent food insecurity crises year after year.

Department for International Development: Ministerial Policy Advisers

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the (a) policy and (b) other responsibilities are of each special adviser in her Department.

Mr Desmond Swayne: The Code of Conduct for Special Advisers sets out the role of special advisers and describes the range of activities they may undertake. Copies of the Code of Conduct are available in the Libraries of the House and on-line athttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/468340/CODE_OF_CONDUCT_FOR_SPECIAL_ADVISERS_-_15_OCTOBER_2015_FINAL.pdf

Eritrea: EU Aid

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department has made representations to the EU on its funding of aid and development projects in Eritrea.

Mr Nick Hurd: Between 2013 and 2015 DFID provided UNICEF in Eritrea with £10 million for child and maternal health and the provision of clean water and sanitation.In December 2015 DFID provided a further £3 million for nutrition support activities and water and sanitation in areas affected by El Nino in the Horn of Africa through UNICEF’s regional programme, which covers Eritrea.Over the past 2 years funding to support primarily Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia totalled £1.6 million and focussed on child protection and related work on anti-smuggling and trafficking.

Eritrea: Overseas Aid

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department has allocated to projects which are primarily aimed at Eritrean nationals in the last three years; and in which countries such projects are based.

Mr Nick Hurd: As a member of the European Development Fund Committee (EDF) my Department scrutinises all EDF programming. The National Indicative Programme (NIP) for Eritrea under EDF 11 was considered at the Committee on the 17th of November 2015 and received a positive opinion. Prior to that DFID officials worked with other member states to secure a joint EU and member state approach to linking implementation of the NIP with successful dialogue on human rights.We continue to monitor this, both in country and in Brussels, alongside other member states.

Malawi: Universities

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will issue a response to EDM 1011, Fire at Mzuzu University, Malawi.

Mr Nick Hurd: The UK recognises the terrible loss for Mzuzu University and academia in Malawi caused by the fire in December 2015 which destroyed the university library and its stock of 45,000 books. We commend the Scotland Malawi Partnership for coordinating efforts in Scotland to appeal for donations for the restocking and rebuilding of the library. Officials have met with the Scotland Malawi Partnership and the Mzuzu University Vice Chancellor to discuss possible funding opportunities. It is encouraging that Scottish Universities are again demonstrating Scotland’s unique people to people approach to supporting Malawi at a time when the country is also facing a humanitarian crisis and funding priorities are in strong competition.

UK Membership of EU: Referendums

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans her Department has made to reallocate UK aid funding from cross-EU funds and programmes in the event of the UK voting to leave the EU.

Mr Nick Hurd: At the February European Council the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government's view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU. The civil service works to support the government’s position.

Department for Education

Department for Education: Fringe Benefits

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in her Department and non-departmental public bodies receive (a) home to work travel allowance, (b) a car allowance and (c) subsidised health insurance.

Nick Gibb: The Department for Education (which includes the Education Funding Agency, National College for Teaching and Leadership and the Standards and Testing Agency) does not offer any of the above allowances to its staff. We do not hold information in relation to non-departmental public bodies.

Schools: Admissions

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average number of days was for a determination to be made by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator after an objection to a school's admission arrangements was submitted in each the last four years.

Nick Gibb: Holding answer received on 24 February 2016



The information requested is held by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA). The OSA Annual Report contains data about the objections referred to the OSA and the outcome of those objections: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/parents-to-get-greater-say-in-the-school-admissions-process

Schools: Admissions

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will undertake a national review of the operation of admissions procedures and the School Admissions Code.

Nick Gibb: The Department for Education is intending to make changes to the School Admissions Code to improve the admissions system for parents and schools. This will be subject to a full public consultation to allow anyone with an interest to provide their views. It will also be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Details of the consultation will be announced in due course.

Schools: Admissions

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what procedures are in place to ensure that headteachers follow the School Admissions Code.

Nick Gibb: An individual school’s admission authority is responsible for setting and applying its admission arrangements. The local authority is the admission authority for community and voluntary controlled schools; the school’s governing body is the admission authority for voluntary aided and foundation schools; and for academies, the admission authority is the academy trust.Anyone who believes a school’s admission arrangements are unfair or unlawful can object to the Schools Adjudicator. If the Adjudicator finds the admission arrangements do not comply with the Code, the admission authority must amend their arrangements accordingly.Any parent who believes the admission authority has not properly applied the school’s admission arrangements in the case of their child’s application and the child has, as a result, been refused a place at the school, has the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel. If the appeal panel upholds the appeal, the school must admit the child.The School Admissions Code can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2

Schools: Admissions

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria are used to define challenging behaviour as used in the 2012 School Admissions Code.

Nick Gibb: It is for admission authorities to agree with their local authorities what they regard as challenging behaviour, based on the circumstances of each case.Each local authority is required to have a Fair Access Protocol in place, to ensure that – outside the normal admissions round – unplaced children are offered a place at a suitable school as quickly as possible and that no school is asked to take a disproportionate number of children with challenging behaviour or children excluded from other schools.

Faith Schools: Admissions

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy on school admissions of the finding of the report, An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign in October 2015, relating to information made available on requirements for religious observance as part of the admissions process for certain religiously selective schools.

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy on school admissions of the finding of the report, An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign in October 2015, on the use of supplementary information forms which assume that parents are of the opposite sex; and if she will take steps to ensure that such forms are not used by schools in future.

Nick Gibb: Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code (the code) and other admissions law.Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements comply within two months of a determination. This includes requiring schools to amend their supplementary information forms when they do not comply with the code.We support the right of schools with a religious designation to prioritise children of their faith designation but the code requires that any measure of religious activity used for admission purposes must be as laid out by their faith body.The Government will shortly consult on a package of changes to the School Admissions code which will both respond to concerns from parents and to the findings in the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. That package will include measures to improve fairness and transparency.

Faith Schools: Complaints

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many vexatious complaints there have been against faith schools from secularist campaign groups in each of the last three years.

Nick Gibb: The information requested is held by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA). The OSA Annual Report contains data about the objections referred to the OSA and the outcome of those objections: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/parents-to-get-greater-say-in-the-school-admissions-process

Pupil Referral Units

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of fair access protocols on pupil referral units.

Nick Gibb: Fair access protocols exist to ensure that, outside the normal admissions round, unplaced children, especially the most vulnerable, are offered a place at a suitable school as quickly as possible and that no school is asked to take a disproportionate number of children with challenging behaviour or children excluded from other schools.Fair access protocols do not have a direct impact on pupil referral units.It is for local authorities, together with the schools in their area, to decide on which children should be eligible for consideration under their fair access protocol, which as a minimum must include children from pupil referral units who need to be integrated back into mainstream education.

Extracurricular Activities

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of (a) the school a pupil attends and (b) access to transport on participation in after-school sport.

Nick Gibb: Local authorities are responsible for making sure that local travel arrangements enable children to attend school. The responsibility covers transport from home to school at the start and finish of the school day. Local authorities can use their discretionary powers to provide transport to meet local needs. They should engage both with parents and schools in deciding what support can be expected from the local authority.

Free Schools: Luton

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 16 February 2016 to Question 26162 on free schools: Luton, whether she plans to publish details of the repayments made by Luton Girl's Academy or people associated with its application, by date, in March 2016.

Mr Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether it is her Department's policy to publish details of repayments to the public purse made by cancelled or withdrawn free schools.

Edward Timpson: Total pre-opening revenue costs for Luton Girls’ Academy will be published by end March 2016. This will take into account a repayment of grant which was made by the Trust in July 2015.In line with the Government’s transparency agenda the Department’s policy is to publish expenditure data in a manner helpful to the public. With that in mind we publish the full pre-opening revenue cost of cancelled or withdrawn free school projects once the amount of expenditure, taking into account any repayments, has been finalised.

Schools: Admissions

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of identified violations of the Schools Admissions Code since 2014 related to failure to properly prioritise looked-after and previously looked-after children.

Nick Gibb: Of the 271 admission objections determined since January 2014, 6% were found to have non-compliant elements relating to provisions in the School Admissions Code concerning looked after and previously looked after children.

Schools: Admissions

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will establish a regulatory body to enforce the School Admissions Code.

Nick Gibb: It is the role of the Schools Adjudicator to determine whether school admission arrangements comply with the School Admissions Code. Where they do not, the school’s admission authority is required to revise the arrangements.Currently, anyone who believes a school’s admission arrangements may not comply with the Code may refer them to the Adjudicator. We propose that, in future, only local parents and local authorities should be able to do so. We want to ensure that the Adjudicator is able to focus on the concerns that parents may have about their local school’s admission arrangements. We will be conducting a full public consultation in due course.

Schools: Admissions

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of the objections received by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator in relation to the School Admissions Code by (a) all parties, (b) civil society organisations and (c) individuals in a school's local area have not been upheld in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb: Figures relating to all objections received by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator are published in the Chief Adjudicator’s annual report, which can be found on GOV.UK: www.gov.uk/government/publications/osa-annual-report

Schools: Admissions

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what measures are in place to ensure that no school is asked to admit a disproportionate number of children who have been excluded from other schools.

Nick Gibb: Each local authority is required to have a Fair Access Protocol in place, to ensure that unplaced children, especially the most vulnerable, are offered a place at a suitable school as quickly as possible. The protocol also ensures that no school is asked to take a disproportionate number of children with challenging behaviour or who have been excluded from other schools.All admission authorities, including those of academies and free schools, are required to participate in the Fair Access Protocol for their area.

Education: Standards

Danny Kinahan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the built environment on learning progress in schools.

Nick Gibb: The Department’s approach to the built environment is informed by a range of expert research.The James Review of Education Capital, published in 2011 recommended the implementation of standardised designs for schools that could be continually improved upon and deliver buildings that ‘act as manageable tools for those delivering outstanding education to our children.’ In response to this the Education Funding Agency (EFA) developed ‘Baseline Designs’, which help to ensure that the Department’s funding goes further and that as many pupils as possible benefit from improved school buildings.Alongside this, the Department recognises the importance of factors such as daylight, temperature and air-quality and offers guidance to schools, contractors and designers through EFA Building Bulletins and the requirements in EFA’s Facilities Output Specification, used in procuring new school buildings.

Education: Standards

Danny Kinahan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies on the design of new schools of the study entitled, The impact of classroom design on pupils' learning, by Professor Barrett of Salford University, published in July 2015.

Danny Kinahan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has taken steps to disseminate the findings of the study, The impact of classroom design on pupils' learning, by Professor Barrett of Salford University, published in July 2015, to (a) primary schools, (b) secondary schools and (c) sixth form colleges.

Nick Gibb: The Department continuously monitors literature published on the built environment as it relates to schools. Where relevant, the findings from this literature inform the development of the Department’s guidance on design and maintenance[1]. The Department uses this guidance to communicate with contractors, designers, schools and sixth form colleges about the standards in class room design.Professor Barrett has met with officials from the department to discuss the findings of his research. Professor Barrett’s recommendations regarding daylight, temperature and air-quality in schools reinforce those already made in the Education Funding Agency’s (EFA) Building Bulletins and the requirements in EFA’s Facilities Output Specification, used in procuring many new school buildings.[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/school-building-design-and-maintenance

Schools: Admissions

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of preventing civil society organisations from submitting complaints about school admission arrangements on the transparency and accountability of the admissions system.

Nick Gibb: I refer my honourable friend to the answer to parliamentary question number HL5704.

English Baccalaureate

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the total number of students enrolled in the English Baccalaureate in each year since its inception; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: Holding answer received on 26 February 2016



Information on the percentage of pupils entered for the components of the English Baccalaureate between 2009/10 and 2014/15 is published in the Statistical First Release “Revised GCSE and equivalent results in England: 2014 to 2015”. [1] [1] 2014/15 revised table can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/494052/SFR01_2016_National_Tables.xlsx. (Table 1b)

Teachers: Training

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on marketing for the Future Teaching Scholars programme to date.

Nick Gibb: The management of the Future Teaching Scholars programme is contracted to the delivery organisation, Education Development Trust. Any money spent on marketing is determined by the Education Development Trust.

Academies: Standards

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to encourage academies to join high-performing rather than under-performing multi-academy trusts; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson: Regional Schools Commissioners (RSC) are supporting the development of high-performing multi-academy trusts (MAT). MATs enable academies to realise a wide range of benefits and provide the formal structure in which high-performing schools can support under-performing schools to improve.Where there are concerns about the performance of an academy, the RSC may decide that the support of a new academy trust is needed to bring about the necessary improvements. In selecting a new trust, the RSC will evaluate its capacity, including the performance of the trust’s existing academies and its ability to provide the support required.In order to move an underperforming academy to a new trust, the RSC may be able to use the termination powers set out in the academy’s funding agreement to require the academy to move without the agreement of the academy or the existing trust. The Education and Adoption Bill will give RSCs stronger, more consistent powers to do this with all failing and coasting academies.

Teachers: Training

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has allocated to the Future Teaching Scholars programme for the 2016-17 cohort.

Nick Gibb: Funding for the Future Teaching Scholars programme is allocated by financial year rather than by cohort. £1.3m has been allocated for financial year 2016-17. This covers the £15,000 financial incentive to Scholars, continued marketing expenditure, and all programme delivery costs.

Department for Education: Public Expenditure

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has spent on (a) new IT equipment, (b) new furniture, (c) new artwork, (d) catering and events, (e) renovating its buildings and facilities, (f) new plants and shrubs and (g) special advisers' travel expenses since May 2015.

Nick Gibb: The Department for Education has spent the amounts shown in the table below on the following list of categories from 1 May 2015 to 31 January 2016.a) New IT equipment£868,312b) New furniture£11,861c) New artworkNo Expenditured) Catering and events£326,575e) Renovating buildings and facilities [1]£9,862,679f) New plants and shrubsNo Expenditureg) Special Advisers’ travel expenses (including rail journeys)£1,555[1] The figure for renovating buildings and facilities is for DfE and its Agencies and does not include expenditure on school buildings.The figures are for the Department, its Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Government Equalities Office, Equality and Human Rights Commission and Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

Foster Care: Finance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2016 to Question 26852, what funding she expects will be provided for the Fostering Network in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.

Edward Timpson: The Department does not hold the information requested. We will be making available opportunities for voluntary and community sector organisations to bid for grants and contracts to undertake specific activity which addresses ministerial priorities, including fostering, during this Parliament.We anticipate that grant and contract funding opportunities will be published on the Contracts Finder website, www.gov.uk/contracts-finder, in due course, with further funding opportunities to be offered later in the 2016 to 2017 financial year.

English Language: Teachers

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will establish a system to permit supplementary schools and mainstream schools to bid for funding to support the professional development of staff teaching English to GCSE and A-level standard; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: Decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rightly rest with schools, headteachers, and teachers as they are in the best position to judge their own requirements.

Gujarati Language: Education

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will require the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations board to offer GCSE and A-level Gujarati examinations beyond September 2018; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The exam boards are independent organisations, and the department continues to work closely with them to secure the future of all the existing language GCSEs and A levels, including Gujarati.

Teachers: Training

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applicants to the Future Teaching Scholars programme to date have been (a) women and (b) men.

Nick Gibb: To date we have received applications from 27 women and 23 men. We remain confident that we will secure 110 scholars by the end of summer 2016.

Teachers: Training

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of (a) people who will apply for 2016-17 cohort of the Future Teaching Scholars programme, (b)applicants that will join that scheme for that year and (c) such applicants that will complete that training.

Nick Gibb: The Future Teaching Scholars programme is currently recruiting high achieving A level students, with the aim of securing up to 110 Scholars to start the programme in academic year 2016-17. All Scholars will be rigorously selected, including assessment of their commitment to teaching.

Children's Centres

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and which local authorities have notified her Department about plans to dispose of grant-funded assets through the (a) sale, (b) transfer and (c) change of use of children's centres under the requirements of the Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Grant.

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria her Department uses to assess whether a local authority should be subject to a Sure Start claw-back.

Mr Sam Gyimah: Where local authorities dispose of or change the use of buildings or other assets funded wholly or partly through Sure Start capital grants, they must repay the money through the claw-back process.The Department for Education has a thorough set of monitoring arrangements in place regarding claw-back rules. Local authorities are required to notify the department of each and every proposed change of services and provide details about the level of early years services that are to continue. The department then considers if the local authority has continued to offer a sufficient level of early years services for children and their families from the building in question to meet the original aims of the grant.If the department is satisfied that the funding for the asset will continue to be used for purposes consistent with the grant, the department may defer claw-back. Deferring claw-back means that we accept the change of usage at that time, however, the department retains its interest in the asset and if in the future the asset has its usage changed, is transferred or otherwise disposed of, and does not continue to meet the purposes of the grant the local authority must inform the department and we will claw-back the funding. The department’s interest in an asset funded by Sure Start capital grants is 25 years from designation of the building. If the grant was used to purchase capital items or re-furbish an existing asset, the length of time and value of any claw-back depends on the depreciation value of the items, according to local authority depreciation rules.

Teachers: Training

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications her Department received to the first application round for the Future Teaching Scholars programme.

Nick Gibb: The Future Teaching Scholars programme received 50 applications in the first recruitment round. We remain confident that we will secure 110 scholars by the end of summer 2016.

Ministry of Justice

Courts: Digital Technology

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of how much his Department will have spent on implementing digitalisation requirements by April 2016 at the courts and tribunals proposed for closure in the recent Proposal on the provision of court and tribunal estate in England and Wales consultation.

Mr Shailesh Vara: Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service are committed to delivering a quicker and fairer justice system. The digitalisation programme is on track to deliver £220m of benefits. Investment of digital technologies to court centres under consultation was immediately paused pending the outcome of this process. £1.35m had previously been spent in courts which have subsequently been announced for closure. The vast majority of this expenditure was in re-usable hardware assets which will be reallocated to other sites within the HMCTS estate. Additionally, the savings from the installations are expected to outweigh average installation costs by the time courts start to close.

Prisoners

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) times and to which prisons (i) Tornado Teams and (ii) the National Tactical Response Group have been called out, (b) Gold Command prison incidents there have been and (c) times (i) police stations and (ii) court cells have been used to accommodate prisoners in each month since January 2014.

Andrew Selous: Violence in prisons has increased in recent years. The nature of offenders currently in custody and the widespread availability of novel psychoactive substances have both contributed to making prisons less safe. There is no single, simple solution to the problems we face but we are making progress.We have launched a two year Violence Reduction project to help us to gain a better understanding of the causes and characteristics of violence in prisons and to strengthen the handling of this. We are also trialling the use of body worn cameras in prisons, training sniffer dogs to detect new psychoactive substances and have made it an offence to smuggle new psychoactive substances into prison. However, ultimately the only way to reduce violence in our prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to more effectively reform and rehabilitate offenders, which we are determined to see through.The safety of staff and prisoners is a priority. Gold Command is opened in order to deal with incidents as quickly and safely as possible. Not all incidents turn out to be serious, but Gold Command is opened as a precaution when incidents are regarded as potentially serious. Table 1: Deployment of Tornado Teams to prisons and other establishments between January 2014 and December 2015  * IRC – immigration removal centreEstablishment and Type of IncidentNo. Incidents Per Year (By Type) 20142015Brinsford  Hostage1 Bristol  Concerted Indiscipline1 Channings Wood  Concerted Indiscipline2 Deerbolt  Concerted Indiscipline 1Doncaster  Concerted Indiscipline1 Featherstone  Concerted Indiscipline 1Garth  Concerted Indiscipline1 Gartree  Concerted Indiscipline 1Glen Parva  Concerted Indiscipline 1Harmondsworth  Concerted Indiscipline1 Haverigg  Concerted Indiscipline11High Down  Concerted Indiscipline 1Humber  Concerted Indiscipline1 Isis  Concerted Indiscipline 1Leicester  Concerted Indiscipline 1Lindholme  Concerted Indiscipline1 Manchester  Incident At Height 1Moorland  Concerted Indiscipline  Morton Hall IRC  Concerted Indiscipline1 Northumberland  Concerted Indiscipline2 Nottingham  Concerted Indiscipline 1Oakwood  Concerted Indiscipline1 Portland  Concerted Indiscipline 1Ranby  Concerted Indiscipline1 Stocken  Concerted Indiscipline 1Swinfen Hall  Concerted Indiscipline 1Wandsworth  Concerted Indiscipline 2Wayland  Concerted Indiscipline1   Table 2: National Tactical Response Group callouts between January 2014 and December 2015. Establishment and Type of IncidentNo. of Incidents Per Year (By Type) 20142015Altcourse  Hostage1 Incident At Height4 Aylesbury  Incident At Height 11Hostage1 Bedford  Incident At Height 2Belmarsh  Incident At Height22Birmingham  Barricade 1Incident At Height13Brinsford  Hostage11Bristol  Concerted Indiscipline 1Incident At Height14Hostage 1Brixton  Barricade 2Incident At Height 2Buckley Hall  Incident At Height12Bullingdon  Explosive Threat 1Incident At Height 4Hostage3 Cardiff  Barricade2 Incident At Height41Hostage11Channings Wood  Incident At Height23Chelmsford  Hostage1 Incident At Height12Coldingley  Barricade1 Incident At Height 2Colnbrook  Incident At Height 1Cookham Wood  Concerted Indiscipline 1Deerbolt  Concerted Indiscipline 1Incident At Height11Hostage31Doncaster  Barricade 1Concerted Indiscipline1 Incident At Height 6Hostage 2Dovegate  Barricade 1Concerted Indiscipline 1Incident At Height 1Dover  Incident At Height 2Durham  Incident At Height25Hostage 1Eastwood Park  Incident At Height 1Elmley  Concerted Indiscipline1 Incident At Height 1Erlestoke  Incident At Height11Exeter  Incident At Height 2Featherstone  Concerted Indiscipline 1Incident At Height 2Prisoner in Crisis 1Feltham  Barricade 1Incident At Height22Forest Bank  Incident At Height1 Frankland  Concerted Indiscipline 1Full Sutton  Incident At Height11Garth  Concerted Indiscipline 1Hostage 2Incident At Height 2Gartree  Concerted Indiscipline 1Incident At Height1 Glen Parva  Concerted Indiscipline 2Incident At Height27Hostage32Guys Marsh  Incident At Height31Harmondsworth  Concerted Indiscipline1 Haverigg  Concerted Indiscipline11Incident At Height51Hewell  Incident At Height82High Down  Incident At Height54Barricade1 Concerted Indiscipline 1Highpoint  Barricade 2Incident At Height13Hostage 2Hindley  Barricade  Incident At Height62Concerted Indiscipline/Barricade 1Holme House  Hostage1 Incident At Height11Hull  Barricade1 Hostage 1Incident At Height11Humber  Concerted Indiscipline1 Hostage13Incident At Height38Isis  Hostage 2Incident At Height17Self-Harm 1Kennett  Barricade 1Lancaster Farms  Barricade 1Hostage 1Hostage/Barricade 1Incident At Height31Leeds  Barricade 1Concerted Indiscipline 1Hostage11Incident At Height110Leicester  Concerted Indiscipline 1Hostage 1Incident At Height310Lewes  Concerted Indiscipline1 Incident At Height13Lincoln  Hostage11Incident At Height14Lindholme  Barricade 2Concerted Indiscipline22Incident At Height58Hostage13Littlehey  Incident At Height 1Liverpool  Incident At Height64Hostage 1Lowdham Grange  Concerted Indiscipline 2Incident At Height46Hostage 1Manchester  Incident At Height19Moorland  Barricade22Concerted Indiscipline12Incident At Height23Hostage11Morton Hall  Concerted Indiscipline11Incident At Height11Northumberland  Barricade 1Concerted Indiscipline21Incident At Height14Norwich  Incident At Height1 Nottingham  Barricade1 Concerted Indiscipline11Hostage12Incident At Height123Oakwood  Concerted Indiscipline1 Incident At Height11Hostage1 Onley  Incident At Height21Hostage 1Parc  Incident At Height510Parkhurst  Incident At Height 1Pentonville  Barricade 1Incident At Height54Hostage 1Peterborough  Concerted Indiscipline1 Incident At Height2 Portland  Incident At Height32Hostage 1Preston  Incident At Height13Ranby  Barricade21Concerted Indiscipline1 Incident At Height62Hostage2 Risley  Incident At Height41Rochester  Barricade1 Incident At Height14Hostage1 Rye Hill  Incident At Height21Stafford  Incident At Height11Stocken  Concerted Indiscipline 2Incident At Height 3Hostage 2Stoke Heath  Concerted Indiscipline1 Incident At Height 1Styal  Barricade1 Incident At Height 1Swaleside  Barricade 1Incident At Height22Hostage14Swansea  Incident At Height11Swinfen Hall  Concerted Indiscipline 1Incident At Height 2Hostage3 Thameside  Incident At Height 4The Mount  Incident At Height 9Hostage 1Wandsworth  Concerted Indiscipline 2Incident At Height312Self-Harm 1Wayland  Barricade 4Concerted Indiscipline11Incident At Height22Hostage22Wealstun  Incident At Height11Werrington  Concerted Indiscipline 1Incident At Height15Hostage 1Wetherby  Incident At Height37Whatton  Hostage 1Whitemoor  Hostage 1Incident At Height21Winchester  Incident At Height42Hostage2 Wolds  Incident At Height1 Woodhill  Incident At Height14Hostage 1Wormwood Scrubs  Barricade 1Incident At Height23Wymott  Incident At Height 2  Table 3: Gold Command Suite Openings between January 2014 and December 2015  Where ‘NOMS’ is listed as the establishment, this is referring to industrial action taken by members of prison staff.EstablishmentIncident TypeNo. of Openings Per Year (By Incident)  20142015AltcourseHostage2 AylesburyHostage1 BrinsfordHostage11BristolConcerted Indiscipline1 Buckley HallConcerted Indiscipline  BullingdonHostage3 CardiffHostage1 Channings WoodConcerted Indiscipline1  Fire1 ChelmsfordHostage1 Cookham WoodConcerted Indiscipline1  Hostage  DeerboltHostage32 Concerted Indiscipline 1DoncasterHostage 2 Concerted Indiscipline1 DovegateConcerted Indiscipline 1DurhamHostage 1ElmleyConcerted Indiscipline1  Hostage 1FeatherstoneIncident at Height 1 Concerted Indiscipline 1GarthHostage 2 Concerted Indiscipline11GartreeConcerted Indiscipline 1Glen ParvaHostage71 Concerted Indiscipline 2HarmondsworthConcerted Indiscipline1 HaslarHostage1 HaveriggHostage21 Concerted Indiscipline11High DownHostage 1 Concerted Indiscipline 1HighpointHostage12Holme HouseHostage1 HullHostage 1HumberHostage32 Concerted Indiscipline11IsisHostage 2 Barricade 1Isle of WightIncident at Height 1Lancaster FarmsHostage 1LeedsHostage11 Incident at Height 1LeicesterHostage 2 Incident at Height 2 Concerted Indiscipline 1LewesIncident at Height 1LincolnHostage11 Incident at Height 1LindholmeIncident at Height1  Concerted Indiscipline1  Hostage13LittleheyHostage1 LiverpoolHostage 1 Incident at Height 1Long LartinHostage 1Lowdham GrangeConcerted Indiscipline 1ManchesterIncident at Height 1MoorlandConcerted Indiscipline1  Hostage2 Morton HallConcerted Indiscipline11NOMSIndustrial Action1 NorthumberlandConcerted Indiscipline2 NorwichHostage1 NottinghamHostage14OakwoodConcerted Indiscipline1 OnleyHostage 1 Incident at Height1 PentonvilleHostage 1 Incident at Height 1PortlandHostage1  Concerted Indiscipline 1PrestonHostage2 RanbyConcerted Indiscipline1  Hostage21RochesterHostage1  Barricade1  Incident at Height11Rye HillHostage1 StockenHostage 2 Concerted Indiscipline 1 Concerted Indiscipline1 SwalesideHostage24 Incident at Height11 Concerted Indiscipline1 SwanseaHostage1 Swinfen HallHostage31 Concerted Indiscipline 1The MountIncident at Height 1 Hostage 1WandsworthMiscellaneous 1 Concerted Indiscipline 2 Incident at Height 2WaylandHostage23 Concerted Indiscipline1 WerringtonHostage 1WhattonHostage 1WhitemoorHostage 1WinchesterHostage2 WoodhillHostage 1 As part of standard logistical arrangements, there are occasions where prisoners may be temporarily held overnight in police cells. We are not using police cells due to a lack of space but because it is not always possible to transfer prisoners from courts to prisons in the time available at the end of court sittings. This is not the same as using Operation Safeguard, as in 2007-08. Court cells have not been used to hold prisoners during the time period specified in the question. Table 4: The total number of prisoners who were temporarily held overnight in police cells in England and Wales January 2015 – December 2015. The totals include adults, young adults (18 to 20-year-olds) and young people (15 to 17-year-olds). Number of Lockouts20142015January16889February372112March17574April64107May4647June112113July274180August11663September62137October96174November149195December111151Total17451442

Prisons: Private Sector

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons the National Offender Management Service decided not to impose financial penalties on private prisons on each occasion when such penalties were applicable in the last five years; and what the value of those fines so foregone was.

Andrew Selous: Performance points are accrued when a custodial service failure occurs. Charges are then applied when the total points exceeds the relevant performance baseline. A performance baseline is allowed in recognition of the complex operational nature of prisons where we know that there will be occasional incidents no matter how well the prison is run. This charge protocol is a longstanding practice in prison contracts. The performance points, and subsequent calculated charges, are signed off by all parties at the Quarterly Contract Review Meeting. Following this meeting, charge payable will, without exception, be collected by NOMS.

Prisons: Civil Disorder

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times (a) gold, (b) silver and (c) bronze command suites were opened in each prison in each of the last three years.

Andrew Selous: Violence in prisons has increased in recent years. The nature of offenders currently in custody and the widespread availability of new psychoactive substances have both contributed to making prisons less safe. There is no single, simple solution to the problems we face but we are making progress.We have launched a two year Violence Reduction project to help us to gain a better understanding of the causes and characteristics of violence in prisons and to strengthen the handling of this. We are also trialing the use of body worn cameras in prisons, training sniffer dogs to detect new psychoactive substances and have made it an offence to smuggle new psychoactive substances into prison. However, ultimately the only way to reduce violence in our prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to more effectively reform and rehabilitate offenders, which we are determined to see through.The safety of staff and prisoners is a priority. Gold Command is opened in order to deal with incidents as quickly and safely as possible. Not all incidents turn out to be serious, but Gold Command is opened as a precaution when incidents are regarded as potentially serious. Tables 1, 2 and 3 show the number of times Gold Command has been opened in each of the past three years by prison. The decision to open Silver Command is made at the local level. Data regarding Silver Command openings is not held centrally, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. There is no “Bronze Command suite” within NOMS incident response procedures. Table 1: Number of times Gold Command Suite opened by prison in 2013PrisonNumber of IncidentsAylesbury2Cardiff1Doncaster2Elmley1Everthorpe2Featherstone1Full Sutton1Garth1Gartree1Glen Parva4Haverigg1Hewell2High Down2Holme House1Hull3Isis1Lewes1Lincoln2Lindholme3Long Lartin3Maidstone1Moorland2Morton Hall1National – Industrial Action1Northumberland1Onley1Pentonville1Peterborough1Preston1Ranby1Risley2Rye Hill1Stafford1Stocken3Swaleside1Swinfen Hall6Warren Hill1Wayland1Wealstun2Wetherby3Wolds1Woodhill1Wormwood Scrubs1Wymott1 Table 2: Number of times Gold Command Suite opened by prison in 2014PrisonNumber of IncidentsAltcourse2Aylesbury1Brinsford1Bristol1Bullingdon3Cardiff1Channings Wood2Chelmsford1Cookham Wood1Deerbolt3Doncaster1Elmley1Garth1Glen Parva7Harmondsworth1Haslar1Haverigg3Highpoint1Holme House1Humber4Leeds1Lincoln1Lindholme3Littlehey1Moorland3Morton Hall1National – Industrial Action1Northumberland2Norwich1Nottingham1Oakwood1Onley1Portland1Preston2Ranby3Rochester3Rye Hill1Stoke Heath1Swaleside4Swansea1Swinfen Hall3Wayland3Winchester2 Table 3: Number of times Gold Command Suite opened by prison in 2015PrisonNumber of IncidentsBrinsford1Deerbolt3Doncaster2Dovegate1Durham1Featherstone2Garth3Gartree1Glen Parva3Haverigg2Highdown2Highpoint2Hull1Humber3Isis3Isle of Wight1Lancaster Farms1Leeds2Leicester5Lewes1Lincoln2Lindholme3Liverpool2Long Lartin1Lowdham Grange1Manchester1Morton Hall1Nottingham2Onley1Pentonville2Portland1Ranby1Rochester1Stocken3Swaleside5Swinfen Hall2The Mount2Wandsworth5Wayland3Werrington1Whatton1Whitemoor1Woodhill1

Ministry of Justice: UK Membership of EU

Mr Douglas Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what planning his Department has undertaken for the possibility of the UK voting to leave the EU.

Andrew Selous: On 19 February, the Prime Minister set out the Government’s position on Europe.

Cemeteries

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with burial authorities and other stakeholders on the reuse of graves.

Caroline Dinenage: The issue of burial space is regularly discussed at meetings of the Burial and Cremation Advisory Group, which is chaired by this department and comprises key stakeholders and representatives within government and the wider burial sector. In addition, the department regularly engages on the issue with individual stakeholders, as appropriate.

Care Proceedings: Eastern Europe

Margaret Beckett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will estimate the number of care proceedings involving children and families from countries in Eastern Europe in the latest period for which figures are available.

Caroline Dinenage: Information is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice about the nationality (or ethnicity) of the children and families involved in family court proceedings in England and Wales.

Prison Service: Pensions

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the comparative effect of changes to civil service pensions on prison officers who joined that scheme under Classic but have been switched to the Alpha scheme and colleagues with the same length of service who have not been switched.

Andrew Selous: Alpha is the new Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme, which now applies to the vast majority of Civil Servants (including prison officers). Only those who are close to retirement have been able to remain in previous schemes or to defer entry to the Alpha scheme. This has always been made transparent and is considered fair as this group of staff are likely to have already started to make plans for their retirements which would be unduly impacted by a change in arrangements at this stage. There are therefore no plans to make such an assessment.

Courts: Closures

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has conducted of the potential effect of the closure of 86 courts and tribunals in England and Wales on access to justice by people in low-income households.

Mr Shailesh Vara: Before making any decision to close a court or tribunal, we considered carefully the effect of closures on all court and tribunal users. The court estate is underused and needs to be updated. Last year, nearly half of our courtrooms were used for less than half of their ordinary sitting time. The Government is committed to modernising the way justice is accessed and delivered, putting users at the heart of the system. To ensure that access to justice is maintained, we are committed to providing alternative ways for users to access our services, including the use of other civic buildings for video links or hearings. The consultation response is available online at www.gov.uk/moj.

Legal Representation: Domestic Violence

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential psychological effect on victims of domestic abuse who are representing themselves as litigants in person in the family court of being cross-examined by their alleged abuser.

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made on ensuring that all judges and family court sittings in private family proceedings cases where there is evidence of domestic abuse adhere to Practice Direction 12J:  Child Arrangements and Contact Order: Domestic Violence and Harm.

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many family courts have designated safe waiting rooms for vulnerable victims and witnesses.

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all victims of domestic abuse attending the family courts have access to special measures similar to those available in the criminal courts.

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential psychological effect on victims of domestic abuse who are representing themselves as litigants in person in the family court of having to cross-examine their alleged abuser.

Caroline Dinenage: The Government is committed to supporting victims of domestic violence and abuse. The Ministry of Justice is undertaking research to explore how the family judiciary are currently managing cases where unrepresented alleged perpetrators of abuse can cross-examine vulnerable witnesses in the family court, and to establish what, if any, additional provisions could be considered to support them in doing so. A report will be published in due course. The research did not aim to assess the psychological impact of any cross-examination on victims of domestic abuse. However, some of the findings relate to the considerations the judiciary make in managing such cases appropriately, and the report will outline options to further protect vulnerable witnesses in the family court. It was out of scope of this research to explore cases where an unrepresented litigant who is a victim of domestic abuse may have to cross-examine their alleged abuser. Family judges have a range of powers and training to manage difficult court room situations and to ensure they are handled sensitively for victims of domestic violence and other vulnerable witnesses. Judges can intervene to prevent inappropriate questions or have questions relayed. Practical protections, for example, protective screens, video links, separate waiting rooms and separate entrances are available where appropriate. It is for the judge involved, on the basis of the evidence, to determine how the framework will be applied in a particular case. The family courts take the issue of domestic violence extremely seriously. The Child Arrangement Programme and Practice Direction 12J set out a strong and clear framework where domestic violence is alleged and all judges receive specific training on this framework.

Courts: West Yorkshire

Holly Lynch: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much he estimates will have been spent by April 2016 on implementing digitalisation requirements at Calderdale Magistrates' Court and Halifax County Court and Family Court.

Mr Shailesh Vara: Approximately £35,000 will have been spent at Halifax (Calderdale) Magistrates’ Court and Family Court by April 2016. The expenditure has been in in-court presentation technology. All the hardware which was bought will be reallocated to another court following closure. There has been no expenditure in digitisation of Halifax County Court and Family Court.

Prison Service: Training

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of prison governors have received (i) diversity training since 1 January 2012 and (ii) no such training; and what proportion of such training included transgender issues.

Andrew Selous: This information is not collected centrally. Equality and diversity training has been available to all NOMS staff via Civil Service Learning since its launch in 2011.

Judges: Training

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of judges have received (i) diversity training since 1 January 2012 and (ii) no such training; and what proportion of such training included transgender issues.

Mr Shailesh Vara: Judicial training is a matter for the judiciary. The Judicial College organises training on behalf of the Lord Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals. All judges and magistrates receive diversity training during their induction training with social context issues, including diversity also forming part of their continuation training. Equality and diversity issues are also woven into all course materials. The Judicial College has also issued an Equal Treatment Bench Book which provides guidance on the range of equal treatment issues likely to arise in courts and tribunals, and includes transgender issues. This is publicly available at https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications/equal-treatment-bench-book/

Non-molestation Orders

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for (a) non-molestation orders and (b) ex parte non-molestation orders were (i) made and (ii) declined in each of the last five years.

Caroline Dinenage: Non-molestation orders are made by the court to protect individuals from the harm of domestic violence. They can, where necessary, extend to protect children.Non-molestation applications are either made ‘without notice’ to the respondent, (formerly known as ex-parte applications) usually if the applicant is seeking immediate protection, or ‘on notice’ to the respondent. The number of applications for non-molestation orders made in each of the last five years, split into ‘without notice’ and ‘with notice’ applications, is shown in table 1. For the same period, and in the same way, table 2 lists the number of applications for non-molestation orders declined and table 3 lists the number of non-molestation orders made. The data covers England and Wales. Table 1: Applications for a Non-molestation order In England and Wales YearWithout Notice Non- Molestation(Ex-parte)On Notice Non-MolestationTotal201015,3473,01118,358201113,7372,39816,135201214,1252,16316,288201316,6102,13918,749201417,2272,24019,467Table 2: Applications for a Non-molestation order declined In England and WalesYearWithout Notice Non- Molestation(Ex-parte)On Notice Non-MolestationTotal20102132011291120124372013437201410616Table 3: Non-molestation orders made In England and Wales  YearWithout Notice Non- Molestation(Ex-parte)On Notice Non-MolestationTotal   201012,5648,63021,194   201111,4848,07219,556   201211,5437,86219,405   201313,6228,66122,283   201413,86710,13223,999

Criminal Injuries Compensation

Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority have been made in each of the last five years.

Mike Penning: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 29 February 2016.The correct answer should have been:

The former probation trusts ceased operation on 31 May 2014, as part of the previous Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. The trusts’ archived records are now held by the National Offender Management Service. Within the specified timescale, it is not possible to ascertain whether or not the information requested is held in the archives. I will write to the hon. Member in due course to let him know the position and to provide the information if we have it.We sympathise with all victims of violent crime. The latest scheme, introduced in November 2012, focuses awards on those who have suffered the most serious injuries. The figures for the past 5 financial years are given in the table below.  Applications made to CICA2010 - 201161,2922011 - 201258,1952012 - 201347,8892013-201433,6882014 -201532,595

Andrew Selous: The former probation trusts ceased operation on 31 May 2014, as part of the previous Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. The trusts’ archived records are now held by the National Offender Management Service. Within the specified timescale, it is not possible to ascertain whether or not the information requested is held in the archives. I will write to the hon. Member in due course to let him know the position and to provide the information if we have it.We sympathise with all victims of violent crime. The latest scheme, introduced in November 2012, focuses awards on those who have suffered the most serious injuries. The figures for the past 5 financial years are given in the table below.  Applications made to CICA2010 - 201161,2922011 - 201258,1952012 - 201347,8892013-201433,6882014 -201532,595

Employment Tribunals Service

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time of cases in employment tribunals was in each of the last five years.

Mr Shailesh Vara: The average length of time of cases in the Employment Tribunal can be located at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

Abortion

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted of offences under sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 related to abortions in each year since 2009-10.

Mike Penning: Sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (only applies in England and Wales) makes it an offence to intentionally procure a miscarriage, including for a woman to procure her own miscarriage. The Abortion Act 1967 creates exceptions to the offences of procuring a miscarriage. The Act makes an abortion legal where the pregnancy is terminated by a registered medical practitioner and where two registered medical practitioners agree that the grounds specified in the Act are satisfied. The number of offenders found guilty at all courts for offences relating to sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861, in England & Wales, from 2009 to 2014 (the latest data available) can be viewed in the attached table. 



Offenders found guilty from 2009-14
(Excel SpreadSheet, 35 KB)

Social Security Benefits: Appeals

Corri Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people recovering from cancer have appealed (a) an employment and support allowance award and (b) a disability living allowance or personal independence payment award decision in the last five years; and how many such appeals were successful.

Mr Shailesh Vara: This information is not held centrally.

Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Trust: Staff

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2016 to Question 21452, how many jobs at the Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Trust were abolished or relocated from Stoke-on Trent between May 2010 and 1 June 2014.

Andrew Selous: The former probation trusts ceased operation on 31 May 2014, as part of the previous Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. The trusts’ archived records are now held by the National Offender Management Service. Within the specified timescale, it is not possible to ascertain whether or not the information requested is held in the archives. I will write to the hon. Member in due course to let him know the position and to provide the information if we have it.

Church Commissioners

George Bell

Frank Field: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the settlement the Church Commissioners made to the complainant against George Bell was made directly in relation to allegations against Bell, or on the basis that a complaint made under a subsequent Bishop, was not handled in a way which would be expected today.

Mrs Caroline Spelman: A formal claim for compensation was submitted in April 2014 and was settled in the autumn of 2015. The settlement followed a thorough pre-litigation process during which investigations took place.Following the settlement of the claim the Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Revd Martin Warner issued a formal apology. The statement can be read on the Church of England’s website at the following address: https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2015/10/statement-on-the-rt-revd-george-bell-%281883-1958%29.aspxThe statement from Bishop Warner went on to say that “the response from the Diocese of Chichester in 1995, when the survivor first came forward, fell a long way short, not just of what is expected now, but of what we now appreciate you should have had a right to expect then."

George Bell

Frank Field: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, whether any of the Estates Commissioners saw the charge sheet on which George Bell was found guilty of child abuse on the balance of probabilities.

Mrs Caroline Spelman: The language of “guilt” and “charge sheets” refers to criminal cases. The claim against Bishop Bell was a civil claim. The civil courts do not use charge sheets and as a result there has not been a charge sheet for the Estates Commissioners to see then or now.

George Bell

Frank Field: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, how many people involved in investigating allegations of child abuse made against George Bell consulted his papers and diaries in Lambeth Palace Library in the last three years.

Mrs Caroline Spelman: Lambeth Palace Library has no record in the last three years of any of the individuals involved in these investigations making an application to view the papers and diaries of George Bell that are held in the Library.

Ministry of Defence

Veterans: Northern Ireland

Dr Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to provide immediate legal advice, without cost, to former service personnel required to submit to an interview about allegations related to past service during the Troubles.

Dr Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assistance his Department gives to former service personnel who are approached by officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland investigating allegations of criminal behaviour during the Troubles; whether such assistance is given before or after that person has been charged; and if he will make a statement.

Penny Mordaunt: In accordance with its normal policy, the Department funds the provision of legal advice to current or former Service personnel whose conduct in the course of their duties in Northern Ireland is being investigated by the police with a view to possible prosecution. This support includes the services of a barrister wherever necessary. The support will be available from the point at which the individual is notified that the police wish to interview him or her as a suspect, which will of course be before any charge, and will continue until the determination of the proceedings. In addition, the Department works closely with Regimental Associations and other Service and veterans' welfare organisations to ensure the provision of appropriate pastoral support.

NATO Rapid Reaction Corps: Location

James Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, where he expects the two-star headquarters of the Ultra Rapid Reaction Corps to be located.

Penny Mordaunt: NATO does not have an Ultra Rapid Reaction Corps. I believe the hon. Member is referring to NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (Land element), which the UK will lead in 2017. When not deployed, its assigned one-star Headquarters, 20 Brigade, will be based in Sennelager, Germany for the duration of this rotational commitment. In response to crisis, the headquarters would move to the most appropriate location.

Italy: Military Bases

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Government has sought from or been given permission by the Italian government for use of the Sigonella air station in Sicily.

Penny Mordaunt: The UK Government has permission to operate from Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella. We make frequent use of it, for example in 2015, three Merlin helicopters were based there as a part of Operation WEALD, which provided search and rescue capability in the Mediterranean.We are currently operating from NAS Sigonella as part of a NATO anti-submarine warfare exercise, Exercise DYNAMIC MANTA.

USA: RAF Lakenheath

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 25312, whether he has been consulted about proposals for a US drone operation centre at RAF Lakenheath; and whether he has received a Host Nation Notification from the US in respect of RAF Lakenheath in the last year.

Penny Mordaunt: No. The Ministry of Defence received a Host Nation Notification from the US in respect of RAF Lakenheath on 7 January 2015, relating to US F-35 basing.

Armed Forces: Deployment

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his Written Statement of 17 December 2015, HCWS 431, to which deployed coalitions the UK is party.

Michael Fallon: The personnel embedded in coalition Headquarters are supporting Operation Shader and wider Middle East security operations.

Military Exercises

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which government departments and agencies plan to participate in Exercise Joint Venture later this year.

Penny Mordaunt: Defence Exercises such as Joint Venture 16 require the assistance of Partners Across Government to replicate the interoperability and inputs which a deployed Joint Task Force would face on operations. The following Government Departments and agencies have been invited to participate in Exercise Joint Venture: the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development, the Stabilisation Unit, Dstl and various Intelligence Agencies.

Armed Forces: Vehicles

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of each type of (a) combat vehicles, (b) protected patrol vehicles and (c) reconnaissance vehicles was classified as fit for service in each of the last six years.

Mr Philip Dunne: The proportion of the total fleet for each type of vehicles classified as fit for service in each year (as an average across the year) is included in the table below. Fit for service has been defined as achieving the minimum levels of safety performance (ballistic, blast, and structural integrity) as defined within the safety case. Year201020112012201320142015 Combat   Challenger 2100%100%100%100%100%100% Warrior84%85%83%84%90%82% Protected Patrol   Cougar[1]100%100%100%100%100%100% FoxhoundN/AN/A100%100%100%100% Snatch Landrover[2]100%100%100%100%100%100% Vector[3]100%100%100%100%100%100% Reconnaissance   CVR(T)76%65%61%96%90%87% Jackal100%100%100%100%100%100%  [1] Cougar Variants comprise Mastiff, Ridgback and Wolfhound [[2] Vector vehicles were withdrawn from operational tasking in 2009

Armoured Fighting Vehicles

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Vector protected vehicles were in operational use by the army in each year since 2007.

Mr Philip Dunne: Information is not available in the format requested. However, in May 2009 a total of 130 Vector vehicles were in operational use in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vector was withdrawn from use on operational tasks in 2009.

Armoured Fighting Vehicles

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his policy is on replacement of Vector protected patrol vehicles.

Mr Philip Dunne: Vector was finally removed from service in 2015 and is currently awaiting disposal. Protected mobility capability is currently provided by a range of vehicles from the existing core fleet, including former Urgent Operational Requirement platforms retained in service following their return from Afghanistan. In the longer term, the Multi Role Vehicle (Protected) series of platforms will provide a light to medium protected vehicle capability.

Armed Forces: Vehicles

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many equipment failure reports were filed for each type of (a) combat vehicle, (b) protected patrol vehicle and (c) reconnaissance vehicle in each of the last six years.

Mr Philip Dunne: The number of equipment failure reports filed for each vehicle is included within the table below. These totals are for all failures reported to the Equipment Failure Reporting System; this will include reports raised incorrectly or unnecessarily. Totals are from 1 January to 31 December each year. Year201020112012201320142015Combat Challenger 288068643197614211708Warrior53555151880310091583Protected Patrol Cougar variants[1]48049710181067293321FoxhoundN/AN/A6096215281179Landrover Variants9824539185715591011Vector35362120103Reconnaissance CVR(T)393292346260722862Jackal560636781561458151 These figures reflect an increase in platform usage rates as the Army redeployed from operations in Afghanistan (where primarily Cougar variant Protected Patrol Vehicles and Jackal reconnaissance vehicles were used) to training on Challenger 2, Warrior, CVR(T), and Landrover vehicles. Equipment Failure Reports are raised for a wide range of fault types (from minor to major) and also for routine part replacement. [1] Cougar Variants comprise Mastiff, Ridgback and Wolfhound

Russia: Armed Forces

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times Russian military (a) aircraft and (b) ships have entered British territory in the last 12 months; what the average response time was for the armed forces on each of those occasions; and what the type and model was of the aircraft or ship on each of those occasions.

Penny Mordaunt: I can confirm that there have been no unauthorised incursions by Russian military aircraft into UK sovereign airspace in the last twelve months.There have been three authorised Treaty inspection flights by Russian military An-30b aircraft in UK airspace under the auspices of the multi-national Open Skies Treaty. On each occasion the UK received advance notice of the aircraft's arrival and it was hosted for the duration of its mission at RAF Brize Norton.For information on Russian naval assets entering UK territorial waters I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 24 March 2015 by the previous Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Mark Francois) to Question number 218391.



Territorial Waters
(Word Document, 14.85 KB)

Joint Security Fund

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what (a) funding the Government will provide to the Joint Security Fund, (b) funding his Department will receive from that fund, (c) funding Defence Intelligence will receive from that fund and (d) proportion of the funding his Department will so receive will be passed onto the armed forces.

Michael Fallon: The Treasury has allocated £3.5 billion to departments over this Parliament to provide joint security funding across government: the Ministry of Defence will benefit from £2.1 billion of that funding to deliver the investment for our Armed Forces set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

War Pensions: Disability

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people in receipt of a war disablement pension are also in receipt of the (a) age-related tax allowance, (b) allowance for lowered standard of occupation and (c) unemployability supplement.

Mark Lancaster: The Ministry of Defence does not hold information on how many people in receipt of a War Pension are also in receipt of the age-related tax allowance, as this is administered by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. However, as at 31 March 2015 (the latest date information is available) there were 41,470* disablement pensioners born before 6 April 1938 who may meet the eligibility criteria to receive age-related tax allowance.As at 31 March 2015 (the latest date information is available) there were 116,050 disablement pensioners in receipt of an ongoing pension under the War Pension Scheme. Of these, 10,195 were in receipt of an allowance for lowered standard of occupation, and 6,250 were in receipt of unemployability supplement. All payments made under the War Pension Scheme are tax free.These figures can be found on the Gov.uk website at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/war-pension-recipients-index* In line with Defence Statistics' Rounding Policy for War Pension Scheme data, all figures of five or more have been rounded to the nearest five.

Special Forces: Finance

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 4.92 of the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, Cm 9161, what additional funding the Government intends to provide for investment in the Special Forces; and when that funding will be provided.

Michael Fallon: As the Prime Minister announced on 16 November 2015, there will be a £2 billion programme of new investment in the Special Forces over this Parliament.

NATO: Type 45 Destroyers

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's press release, UK to step up NATO maritime commitment, published on 10 February 2016, which Type 45 Destroyer will be deployed to NATO's Standing Maritime Group 1 in October 2016.

Penny Mordaunt: The Secretary of State did announce that the Royal Navy will deploy a Type 45 Destroyer to NATO's Standing Maritime Group 1 in October 2016.However, I am withholding details of the ship that will be deployed as such a disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

Military Intervention

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many military operations the UK has undertaken against (a) Daesh and (b) al-Qaeda in the last 12 months.

Penny Mordaunt: In the last 12 months, the UK has been continuing Operation SHADER against Daesh in Iraq and Syria. There have been no UK military operations against Al Qaeda in the same period.

Trident Submarines

Kate Hollern: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26801, if he will create a central register of contracts and contract information for the Successor submarine programme.

Mr Philip Dunne: There is no intention to create a central register as described.

Trident Submarines

Kate Hollern: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) scope, (b) value and (c) cost overrun from the original value are of contracts awarded to BAE Systems for the Successor submarine programme.

Mr Philip Dunne: Contracts awarded to BAE Systems for the Successor programme relate to design services, long lead procurement and facilities upgrades. The total value of these contracts amounts to some £1.4 billion.Spend to date, on these contracts, is within agreed contract limits of liability.

Trident Submarines

Kate Hollern: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the risk provision is in the cost estimate announced in the Strategic Defence and Security Review for the Successor submarine programme.

Kate Hollern: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the provision for inflation is in the cost estimate for the Successor submarine programme.

Mr Philip Dunne: As stated in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, our latest cost estimate for manufacturing the four Successor submarine programme is £31 billion, plus a contingency of £10 billion. This includes an assessment of the likely inflation over the lifetime of the programme and the risks appropriate for a project at this stage.I am withholding the specific estimate for inflation and risk, as to do so would prejudice the Department's commercial interests.

Trident Submarines

Kate Hollern: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he expects the formal internal scrutiny process for the current calculations for optimism bias for the Successor submarine programme to be completed.

Mr Philip Dunne: Optimism Bias work will be completed as part of the evidence required to inform the next investment decision.

Armed Forces: Wales

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many recruits to the (a) Reserve and (b) armed forces in each local authority area of their origin in Wales and in each branch of service began their basic training in each of the last 12 months

Mr Julian Brazier: Information on the local authority of origin for recruits to the Regular and Reserve forces is not available.The date at which personnel started their basic training is also not held.The Ministry of Defence publishes UK Regular strengths by stationed location in our Quarterly Location Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/location-of-all-uk-regular-service-and-civilian-personnel-quarterly-statistics-indexInformation on untrained intake into the Volunteer Reserve by stationed location in Wales is provided in the attached table.



Future Reserves 2020 volunteer Reserve.
(Excel SpreadSheet, 17.54 KB)

Veterans: Mental Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what representations his Department has made to the NHS England consultation on the future of mental health support for veterans of the armed forces.

Mark Lancaster: The Ministry of Defence takes the mental health of our veterans very seriously. The Department has made no representations in response to the NHS England consultation on the future of mental health support for veterans of the Armed Forces. The consultation is aimed at veterans who have used NHS veterans' mental health services, their family members and carers, and staff and organisations that are providing mental health care, treatment and support for veterans and their families.https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/survey/veterans-mental-health-services

Ministry of Defence: Consultants

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many consultants' contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.

Mr Philip Dunne: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Armed Forces: Mesothelioma

Nicola Blackwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to reform compensation for armed forces veterans affected by mesothelioma.

Mark Lancaster: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to the hon. Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris) to question number 903759.

Armed Forces: Pay

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of planned changes to pay and allowances on the morale of the armed forces.

Penny Mordaunt: The new pay model being introduced in April 2016 will be simpler, transparent, and more efficient. It responds to Other Ranks’ dissatisfaction with the current model, retains incremental pay, and no one will take a cut in core pay on transition to the new pay model. I fully expect this to be positive for morale overall.

War Widows: Pensions

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what representations he has received from war widows who remarried between 1973 and 2005 on reinstatement of their war widow's pension.

Mark Lancaster: I met the War Widows Association earlier this year and during our meeting they put forward their case for the reinstatement of War Widow’s Pensions for those widows who had remarried or cohabited before 1 April 2015. Our policy on retrospection remains the same. For those who have already surrendered their pension due to remarriage or cohabitation, if that relationship ends they can apply to have their pension restored for life.

Strategic Defence and Security Review: Navy

Suella Fernandes: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 on the Royal Navy's global reach.

Mr Philip Dunne: The Strategic Defence and Security Review provides the investment necessary to deliver the most modern Navy in the world, capable of supporting the UK’s interests around the globe and keeping our seas safe. Both the capability and manpower of the Royal Navy will grow, including a renewed strategic deterrent; 100% aircraft carrier availability; a fleet of at least 19 frigates and destroyers including new general purpose frigates; new offshore patrol vessels, and new tanker support ships.

Armed Forces: Civil Proceedings

Jack Lopresti: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to protect the armed forces from persistent legal claims.

Penny Mordaunt: As we promised in our manifesto, I am examining with colleagues across Government a range of measures which will reduce litigation against our Armed Forces. This litigation makes it harder for them to do their jobs, causes them great stress and undermines international humanitarian law. The Prime Minister has already set in hand work to discourage opportunistic legal action. I will announce my proposals in the near future.

Defence: Legal Costs

David Mowat: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress he has made on reducing the proportion of the defence budget which is spent on legal fees.

Penny Mordaunt: A fraction of one per cent of the defence budget is spent on legal fees, most of it necessary to protect the interests of the taxpayer in securing value for money or in protecting the operational freedom and reputation of the Armed Forces. We have work in hand to reduce opportunistic litigation which is harmful to Defence and diverts funds from the front line.

Trident Submarines

David Rutley: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effect on national security of the continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent.

Michael Fallon: Successive UK Governments have concluded that for as long as nuclear weapons exist, a nuclear deterrent, based on a continuous at sea deterrence, has a vital role to play in our security and that of our NATO allies. It provides the ultimate guarantee of our national security and way of life.

Department for Work and Pensions

Children: Maintenance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases were being dealt with by his Department's Child Maintenance Group's Financial Investigation Unit in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Priti Patel: Since the 1 April 2015 Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigations Unit received 2,800 referrals for investigation and 3,150 investigations were completed (including cases received prior to 1 April 2015).  Note:1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10

Department for Work and Pensions: Staff

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many full-time equivalent staff are employed within his Department's Child Maintenance Group's Financial Investigation Unit.

Priti Patel: Child Maintenance Group currently has 33.01 full-time equivalent staff working within the Financial Investigations Unit.

Children: Maintenance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for a variation from the standard formula have been made under the 2012 statutory child maintenance scheme by (a) non-resident parents and (b) parents with care since the introduction of that scheme.

Priti Patel: The Information requested is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Children: Maintenance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of non-resident parents within the live caseload of the (a) Child Support Agency and (b) Child Maintenance Service are self-employed.

Priti Patel: For cases administered by the Child Support Agency, as at December 2015, the number of cases within the live caseload where the non-resident parent is self employed was 97,700. This was 7.7% of the live caseload. For the CMS 2012 Scheme, information on employment could currently only be provided at disproportionate cost. The Child Maintenance Service is in the process of assuring employment data and this will be available at a future date.  NoteFigured rounded to nearest 100.Figures include 1993 and 2003 Schemes.As at December 2015, the live caseload stood at 1,268,900.Employment status is not available for cases managed off system.

Children: Maintenance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests were made by his Department's Child Maintenance Group to HM Revenue and Customs for information relating to a non-resident parent's unearned income in each year since the commencement of the 2012 statutory child maintenance scheme.

Priti Patel: The Information requested is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. CMS has direct access to income information held by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which allows the Child Maintenance Service to capture a much wider range of income types received by non-resident parents. Therefore the definition of income within variations under the 2012 scheme of maintenance has been opened to deal with almost all additional sources of income captured by self-assessment. This is referred to as “unearned income” and captures income derived from property, savings and investments (including dividends), and other miscellaneous incomes.

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 February 2016 to Question 26169, on social security benefits: disqualification, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that safeguards to prevent the accrual of sanctions are effective.

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 February 2016 to Question 26169, on social security benefits: disqualification, what the established safeguards are which are in place to prevent the accrual of sanctions.

Priti Patel: The sanctions regime has a range of safeguards for claimants, including ensuring all requirements placed on claimants are reasonable, taking into account individual capability and circumstances, such as health conditions, disability and caring responsibilities. A further safeguard exists so that sanctions at the same level do not increase in duration when the claimant accrues 2 or more within a two week period. This ensures claimants cannot accrue lengthy sanctions within a short period in between meetings with their work coach. We keep the sanctions process under constant review and use research analysis and insight to improve the clarity of all our products and policies.

Children: Maintenance

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24142, how much is owed in child maintenance arrears by non-resident parents whose CSA liability has ended as a result of the proactive or reactive CSA case closure process.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24142, how many current CSA cases where there are existing child maintenance arrears have been subject to proactive or reactive case closure.

Priti Patel: The information requested on case closure arrears is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Children: Maintenance

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24142, what the average length of time per case has been that his Department has taken to complete the child maintenance arrears cleansing or validation process following the ending of liability on a CSA case in the current year.

Priti Patel: The Information requested is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Children: Maintenance

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24142, how many closed CSA cases with child maintenance arrears have been referred for arrears cleansing or validation in each month since 1 April 2015.

Priti Patel: The table below shows the number of cases referred for arrears cleansing in each month since April 2015. Month Apr-2015May-2015Jun-2015Jul-2015Aug-2015Sep-2015Oct-2015Nov-2015Dec-2015Number of cases referred for arrears cleansing 32,64033,74027,32033,45033,45031,89033,6007,63021,660 Notes: Figures rounded to nearest 10.

Children: Maintenance

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24142, how many former CSA clients whose liability ended as part of the Department's CSA case closure process arrears have been sent a notice setting out the validated child maintenance arrears balance on their former CSA case in each month since 1 April 2015.

Priti Patel: The table below shows the number of Arrears letters sent to the Parents with Care (PWC) as part of the case closure process.  Month Apr-2015May-2015Jun-2015Jul-2015Aug-2015Sep-2015Oct-2015Nov-2015Dec-2015Number of Arrears Letters sent to PWC  6,580  15,930  7,530  7,330  16,220  17,370  19,330  19,380  13,010  NotesFigures rounded to the nearest 10

Pension Funds

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing a fiduciary duty for the governance committees of pension funds to their members.

Justin Tomlinson: Under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules introduced in April 2015, independent governance committees (IGCs) have a clear duty to challenge providers on the value for money of their workplace pension schemes, acting in members’ interests, raising concerns and making recommendations as appropriate. The provider must also make arrangements for member views to be directly represented to the IGC. The provider’s board has a “comply or explain” duty in response to recommendations from the IGC and if the IGC is not content with the board’s response it can escalate to the FCA, to members of the scheme and to the public. When coupled with the IGC’s duty to act in members’ interests, this provides a practical and direct way of ensuring good member outcomes.

Pension Funds

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to review the governance arrangements of pension funds.

Justin Tomlinson: The draft Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 laid before Parliament on 1 February, include a review provision as required by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 which will oblige the Secretary of State to carry out reviews at least every 5 years of all the governance requirements for occupational pension schemes covered in Part V of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 as amended by this instrument. Subject to Parliamentary approval the draft 2016 Regulations will come into force on 6 April 2016. We will consider in due course how this review would work in practice. On the governance of workplace personal pension schemes, the Financial Conduct Authority propose to carry out a review of the effectiveness of independent governance committees in 2017.

Supported Housing: Housing Benefit

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will ring-fence housing payments for tenants in supported accommodation.

Justin Tomlinson: We value the work of the supported housing sector extremely highly and are working closely with them to ensure they are supported as effectively as possible. As part of this, we have commissioned an evidence review of supported housing. The results of this research will determine any appropriate exemptions. In addition, the Government has agreed to put in place a year-long exception for all supported housing provided by local authorities and private registered providers from the one per cent rent reduction.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what analysis his Department conducts of personal independence payment medical assessments to (a) help identify common issues which cause repeated appeals and reapplications and (b) ensure a consistent approach across such assessments.

Justin Tomlinson: The Department and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessment Providers have robust audit and assurance regimes in place to check the quality and consistency of PIP assessments. These arrangements confirm that independent health professional advice complies with the required standards and that it is clear and medically reasonable. They also provide assurance that the assessment and opinion given are consistent so that, irrespective of where or by whom the assessment is carried out, claimants with conditions that have the same functional effect will ultimately receive the same benefit outcome. Regular meetings take place with Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service to discuss PIP appeals; feedback is provided to Assessment Providers if there is any indication that the assessment is a factor in appeals or reapplications to inform continuous improvement activity.

Social Security Benefits: EU Nationals

Mr David Nuttall: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the (a) time taken to introduce and (b) cost of introduction of a system of in-work benefits for newly-arrived EU nationals as envisaged in Section D of the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016.

Priti Patel: These are issues to be answered as part of the implementation process.

Housing Benefit: Supported Housing

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of how many people in supported housing specifically designated for (a) disabled people, (b) victims of domestic violence, (c) people with substance misuse problems and (d) others will be affected by the change in housing benefit to the Shared Accommodation Rate.

Justin Tomlinson: The information requested is not available.

Department for Work and Pensions: Hewlett-Packard

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the end-dates are of his Department's contracts with Hewlett Packard Enterprise; which such contracts he plans to extend, for what reasons and to what dates; and if he will make a statement.

Justin Tomlinson: The Department has four contracts with Hewlett Packard Enterprise: Application Development and Application Maintenance & Support – these two contracts expired on 29/02/2016 and an extension has been agreed to 28/02/2018. Hosting – this contract runs till 23/02/2018. Desktop – this contract runs till 08/01/2017. DWP future contracting plans are commercially sensitive. The Department is progressing its strategy to deliver its technology requirements, and this includes both in-house services, and externally provided services sourced through procurement exercises using open competitions under the EU Procurement Directives and call-off competitions under Government Frameworks.

Department for Work and Pensions: ICT

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's plans are for the delivery of IT and digital services after the end dates of current contracts.

Justin Tomlinson: The Department anticipates a shift in the way in which citizens will engage with the Department - with greater digital interaction in the future. Digital Technology, Data and Security capabilities are a key enabler of this shift. The Department is progressing its strategy to deliver the underpinning technology requirements, and this includes both in-house services and externally provided services through procurement exercises using open competitions under the EU Procurement Directives and call-off competitions under Government Frameworks, such as GCloud and Crown Hosting.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have made representations to his Department about the proposed change of social sector housing benefit to the level of local housing allowance.

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many housing providers made representations to his Department about the proposed change of social sector housing benefit to the level of local housing allowance.

Justin Tomlinson: So far representations have been made by 93 individuals and 16 housing providers about the proposed change of social sector housing benefit to the level of local housing allowance. DWP Ministers and officials will continue to have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

Independent Living Fund

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will commission an evaluation of the effectiveness of support for former Independent Living Fund recipients.

Justin Tomlinson: The Government has committed to conducting research on the impact of the Fund’s closure and has already identified a sample of former users who have agreed to participate. The Government believes that local authorities are best placed to provide for the care needs of people in their local community. The Care Act 2014 introduced stringent minimum standards for this care and it is within this context that local authorities took over responsibility for the care and support of former Independent Living Fund users from 1st July 2015. The Government has fully-funded local authorities to meet their additional obligations to service users previously in receipt of the Independent Living Fund for the remainder of the 2015/16 financial year and there will continue to be a separate grant to support them for 2016-17. Under proposals currently being consulted on, the Government will also enable local authorities to continue to fully fund the care packages of former Independent Living Fund users for the remainder of the parliament.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Cricket: Sportsgrounds

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many new community cricket grounds have been opened in the last five years.

David Evennett: According to Sport England’s Active Places Power database which maps community sports facilities in England, 105 new community cricket pitches have been opened in England in the last five years. This data can be found at: www.activeplacespower.com

Tourism: Calder Valley

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage tourism in Calder Valley since the recent flooding and severe weather in that area.

David Evennett: $19022016|4|W|23022016|Craig Whittaker|Calder Valley|To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage tourism in Calder Valley since the recent flooding and severe weather in that area. 27394 A: The Calder Valley is a beautiful part of the UK and tourism is an essential part of the local economy. We want to ensure that our tourism businesses have as much support as possible as they recover from the recent floods. That is why a new £1m PR campaign was announced by the Prime Minister in Cumbria, on the 28th January, to support businesses ready to receive visitors, and this is part of a wider package of immediate measures to help the area.

Tourism: Calder Valley

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the cost to the tourist industry in Calder Valley of recent flooding and severe weather in that area.

David Evennett: No assessment has been made by DCMS of the direct cost to Calder Valley's tourism industry following the recent flooding. However, some tourism businesses in flood affected areas have reported a drop in bookings of up to 60%. We want to ensure that our tourism businesses have as much support as possible as they recover from the recent floods and that is why a new £1m PR campaign was announced by the Prime Minister in Cumbria, on the 28th January, to support businesses ready to receive visitors, and this is part of a wider package of immediate measures to help the area.

Gambling

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Gaming Machine Regulations 2015 on the volume of bets being staked at just under £50; and what steps his Department is taking to assess the levels of staff interaction with fixed odds betting terminal players in bookmakers.

David Evennett: The Government published the Evaluation of Gaming Machine (Circumstances of Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 on 21 January. The Evaluation can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-gaming-machine-circumstances-of-useamendment-regulations-2015 The Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP), include clear requirements regarding staff interaction whenever players show signs of problem gambling. The Government is clear that we expect the industry to help people stay in control of their gambling, and ensure they know where to get help and advice if they need it.

Gambling

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what duties apply to betting companies to ensure that vulnerable customers using their services gamble responsibly.

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of gambling on vulnerable people; and what provisions are in place to assist people who have gambling problems.

David Evennett: One of the three key licensing objectives set out in the Gambling Act 2005 is that vulnerable people should be protected from harm. All betting shop operators are required by the Gambling Commission’s Licence Conditions and Code of Practice (LCCP) to have policies and processes in place to meet this objective. In addition, the industry trade body, the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), has a mandatory code of conduct which places additional social responsibility requirements on all of its members. The rate of problem gambling is at 0.6% of the adult population, which is lower than comparable jurisdictions (USA, South Africa or Australia). However we recognise that rates are significantly higher among some sections of the population, such as young men, and that gambling-related harm is a real and significant problem. The majority of current provision for treatment of problem gamblers is through the Responsible Gambling Trust’s funding of organisations such as GamCare, who provide a helpline and counselling services, and the Gordon Moody Association, which provides specialist residential treatment. Local treatment can be found through GPs and NHS addiction clinics, there is also a specialist NHS service treating gambling disorder, based in London. The Government is committed to ensuring that people are protected from being harmed or exploited by gambling. The Minister for Sport and Tourism has explained to the gambling industry that they are expected to demonstrate that they are improving existing player protection initiatives and evaluating the effects of previous initiatives. As the Minister said at the recent RGT harm minimisation conference, government and industry should never feel that there is an end point to social responsibility.

Football: Tickets

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he plans to take to help prevent disproportionate increases in the price of football tickets.

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent representations he has made to Premier League football clubs on the level of ticket prices.

David Evennett: While ticket prices are matter for individual clubs, this Government is aware how important this is to so many football fans. Football is enjoying an enormous amount of financial success at present, however it should not be forgotten that this is built on the hard work and the money of millions of loyal supporters. Clubs should ensure that ticket pricing strikes the right balance between value for supporters, and generating the income necessary to sustain their business. I will be looking for football to embrace fully a key recommendation from a recently published Government Expert Working Group on supporter ownership and engagement that requires clubs meet with fans at least twice yearly to discuss matters of most importance.

Department for Communities and Local Government

Derelict Land: Greater Manchester

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will provide brownfield gap funding to bring brownfield land in Greater Manchester back into use for homes and business.

Brandon Lewis: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 05 February 2016.The correct answer should have been:

In March 2015 the Greater Manchester Combined Authority contracted with the Department for a £300 million recyclable financial investment to accelerate delivery of up to 15,000 homes over 10 years. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority are aware that, in light of this contract, it will not be possible for bids from the Manchester area to be accepted for other central government housing investment programmes.A £3 billion housing financial transaction programme is available over the over the next five years to support small builders and get infrastructure on large sites, this is in addition to the £300 million Manchester Housing Investment Fund. The Spending Review made £2.3 billion available to support the preparation of up to 60,000 Starter Homes by 2020. This includes £1.2 billion to prepare more brownfield land for starter homes. Further details about the use of this funding will be announced shortly. Bids from Greater Manchester will be eligible to apply for these funds in the normal way.

Brandon Lewis: In March 2015 the Greater Manchester Combined Authority contracted with the Department for a £300 million recyclable financial investment to accelerate delivery of up to 15,000 homes over 10 years. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority are aware that, in light of this contract, it will not be possible for bids from the Manchester area to be accepted for other central government housing investment programmes.A £3 billion housing financial transaction programme is available over the over the next five years to support small builders and get infrastructure on large sites, this is in addition to the £300 million Manchester Housing Investment Fund. The Spending Review made £2.3 billion available to support the preparation of up to 60,000 Starter Homes by 2020. This includes £1.2 billion to prepare more brownfield land for starter homes. Further details about the use of this funding will be announced shortly. Bids from Greater Manchester will be eligible to apply for these funds in the normal way.

Non-domestic Rates: Devolution

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what projections his Department has made of the effect on business rates receipts of plans for devolved city region authorities.

Mr Marcus Jones: The Government has announced that, by the end of the Parliament, we will give all local councils, including city regions, new responsibilities in return for keeping 100% of locally raised business rates. We will also give city regions powers over setting local business rates, strengthening their link with their local business communities and allowing them to tailor local taxes to the needs of their local economies. We will be working out the details of the reform in the coming months in consultation with local government.

Social Rented Housing: Rents

Mr Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of proposals to impose mandatory rent reductions on social landlords of one per cent each year for four years on housing co-operatives which have had a policy of maintaining low levels of rent.

Brandon Lewis: The Housing Benefit bill for England in the social sector now has risen by a quarter over the last 10 years, reaching £13.2 billion in 2014/15. Rising rents in the social housing sector are fuelling this increase in Housing Benefit, with average social rent increases of 55% over the last ten years, compared to 23% in the private rented sector. In the interests of fairness the Government plans to bring rent increases within the social sector back into line with the private rented sector by cutting rents for social housing tenants by 1% a year, for four years.The Government recognises that rent reductions may have a bigger impact on some providers and some specific types of housing and has decided to put in place a one-year exception from the rent reduction for fully mutual co-operative housing, almshouses, community land trusts and supported housing while we consider the approach for the second year of the reductions onwards.

Council Housing: Repairs and Maintenance

Mr Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department has issued on the applicability of Florrie's law, capping council housing repair bills, to works which were commissioned but not implemented before that law was introduced in August 2014.

Brandon Lewis: Free advice and information about service charge issues, including the applicability of The Social Landlords Mandatory Reduction of Service Charges (England) Direction 2014 (known as ‘Florrie’s Law’), is available from the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE). This is a specialist body funded by my Department to provide initial advice and guidance on a wide range of residential leasehold issues.These Directions do not apply to service charges for major works where a local authority has already been awarded Government funding to carry them out, regardless of whether the works have commenced before the law was introduced.

Homes and Communities Agency

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the formal consultation process will be for the review of the Homes and Communities Agency.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what range of options will be considered for the status of the Homes and Communities Agency as part of the review of that Agency.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the timetable is for the review of the Homes and Communities Agency.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Written Statement of 10 February 2016, HCWS520, when he expects the Review of the Homes and Communities Agency to be published.

Brandon Lewis: The Spending Review underlined the priority this Government attaches to our ambition to build a million homes this Parliament and to double the number of new homeowners. Building on the successful contribution the Homes and Communities Agency made in the last Parliament, the Review will ensure that they are well-placed to deliver the Government’s objectives.In line with Cabinet Office guidance, the Review will consider a range of options in looking at how the Agency can operate in the most effective and efficient way.We will be seeking evidence from a wide range of sources, including the Agency itself, and will provide an opportunity for interested stakeholders to contribute views. Once this evidence has been collected and conclusions drawn, the Review will report as soon as possible.

Floods: Compensation

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the amount paid out by local authorities to households in flood compensation payments.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the cost to the public purse has been of his Department reimbursing local authorities for payments to (a) households and (b) businesses in flood protection grants.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, by what date he expects all local authorities to be fully reimbursed for flood protection grants they have paid to (a) households and (b) businesses.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, by what date he expects all local authorities to be fully reimbursed for flood compensation payments they have made to households.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the cost to the public purse has been of his Department reimbursing local authorities for payments to households in flood compensation payments.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much has been paid out by local authorities to households in flood compensation payments that remains to be reimbursed to those authorities by his Department.

James Wharton: To date over £48 million has been paid out to local authorities through the Community and Business Recovery Fund and Council Tax and Business Rates discounts to assist households and businesses affected by the floods caused by Storms Desmond and Eva. Local authorities have not notified the Department of any allowable costs not covered by the sums transferred. It is expected that further payments will be made shortly as flooded property numbers are confirmed and further funds requested.

Council Housing

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2016 to Question 23605, whether he plans to publish the thresholds for council homes to be taken into account when calculating the levy on councils contained in Part 4 of the Housing and Planning Bill before the relevant part of that Bill is debated at Committee Stage in the House of Lords.

Brandon Lewis: The high value threshold will be informed by the data that local authorities have supplied regarding their council housing. This data is currently being validated. Further details will be available shortly.

Property Development: Floods

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will review planning permissions granted to developments that are yet to be started on floodplains that have been affected by recent flooding.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will undertake a reassessment of the adequacy of flood alleviation measures proposed in planning permissions that have been granted to developments on floodplains affected by recent flooding.

Brandon Lewis: It is primarily the responsibility of local planning authorities to determine applications for planning permission. The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that local planning authorities should avoid inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding by directing development away from areas at highest risk, including floodplains. If there are better sites in terms of flood risk, or a proposed development cannot be made safe, it should not be permitted. Any new buildings that are permitted in flood risk areas should be appropriately flood resistant and resilient.Local planning authorities and developers are best-placed to understand the details of the development proposed and the local circumstances and risks to determine if a review is needed. It is in the interest of both the local planning authority and the developer to review a planning permission that has yet to be implemented in an area affected by the recent flooding. This can lead to an entirely new planning application being submitted by the developer to deal with the flooding issues now known. If adjustments can be made to the development, an application to make a non-material amendment under section 96A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 may follow. This would allow the local planning authority to impose new conditions and remove or vary conditions attached to an existing planning permission, and may include a requirement to submit an updated flood risk assessment.If needed, local planning authorities also have powers under section 97 of the 1990 Act to make an order revoking or modifying a planning permission, prior to completion of the development.

Devolution: Yorkshire and the Humber

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential benefit to the local economies of North, East, South and West Yorkshire of a devolution deal.

James Wharton: The specific details of any devolution deals agreed with North, South, East or West Yorkshire would be contingent on the outcome of engagement between the Government and local leaders.The benefits to areas that have agreed devolution deals with the Government will be significant and far-reaching. Local leaders will be given direct control over the levers of growth in their economies, with the most ambitious deals including new powers over adult skills and transport budgets, and substantial, long-term investment funds. By providing local partners with greater control over key policies and resources, devolution deals offer places more of the tools they need to drive forward growth for the benefit of the whole local economy.

Local Government: Pensions

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library all correspondence between the Government and EU Commission on the application of EU Directive 41/2003 Institutional Retirement Provision to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Mr Marcus Jones: We have checked records back to 2007 and there has been no correspondence with the EU Commission by the Government on the application of this directive to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Disabled Facilities Grants

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the (a) budget and (b) total spend was on the disabled facilities grants scheme in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.

Brandon Lewis: Information on the annual budgets provided by the Government for the Disabled Facilities Grant and additional funding by local authorities, which adds up to the total spend for the Grant, is given in the table below. 2009-10 (£m)2010-11 (£m)2011-12 (£m)2012-13 (£m)2013-14 (£m)2014-15 (£m)Government Funding157169200220180185Local Authority contribution13913798608884Total296306298280268269Data on local authority contributions is provided by local housing authorities in their annual LOGASnet returns. LOGASnet is the Department of Communities and Local Government's web-based data capture and payments system. The data is not audited centrally.

Disabled Facilities Grants

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, (a) how many people applied for disabled facilities grants, (b) how many such applications were successful and (c) what the average grant award was in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.

Brandon Lewis: The Department for Communities and Local Government does not collect information on the number of people who applied for a Disabled Facilities Grant or the number of successful applicants. Information on the number of grants completed and the average cost per grant for the years 2009-10 to 2014-15 is provided in the table below. 2009-102010-112011-122012-132013-142014-15Number of grants completed44,10245,38343,98636,87442,58633,922Average grants awarded£3,356£3,724£4,547£5,966£4,227£5,453The above data is provided by local housing authorities in their annual Logasnet returns. LOGASnet is the Department of Communities and Local Government's web-based data capture and payments system. The data is not audited by DCLG.

Flood Control: Grants

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assistance is available to people undertaking flood protection measures who cannot afford to pay for the works before claiming a flood protection grant.

James Wharton: The Property Level Resilience scheme has been designed to enable local approaches to be developed which take account of the fact that many households or businesses may not be able to pay for works up front.Local areas are finding local solutions. For example, Northumberland County Council are making Property Level Resilience payments in advance of works being carried out, but following receipt of a survey which highlights the measures required and at least two quotes for high value items.

Communities and Local Government: Cleaning Services

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.

Brandon Lewis: The rate of pay for cleaners working in buildings managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government is between £6.70 and £8.00 per hour depending on seniority, location and duration of tenure. From April 2016, the Department will pay the National Living Wage.

Disabled Facilities Grants

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average waiting time was to be assessed by an occupational therapist for disabled facilities grants in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.

Brandon Lewis: This data is not collected centrally.

Floods: Cumbria

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 25978, whether the timetable for making a decision on applying to the EU Solidarity Fund has been extended.

James Wharton: I refer the rt. hon. Member to the answer I gave on the EU Solidarity Fund on 25 February 2016, Official Report, column 455.

Change of Use

Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 11 November 2015 to Question 15112, when he intends to bring forward amendments to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015; what provisions will apply to office premises that have been granted prior approval for conversion to residential use but which will not be completed before 30 May 2016; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: We announced on 13 October 2015 that the permitted development right for the change of use from office to residential is to be made permanent, and that those with prior approval will have three years from the date of prior approval in which to change use. Further information on the detail and timing of the regulations will be provided in due course.

Council Tax

Stephen McPartland: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2016 to Question 23515, what estimate he has made of the total cost to people who pay council tax of that tax in (a) Stevenage, (b) Hertfordshire and (c) England in (i) 2014-15 and (ii) 2015-16.

Mr Marcus Jones: This information is available on the Government website:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-council-taxThe table shows that the average levels of Band D council tax (including parish precepts) in those years are:  2014-152015-16England£1,468£1,484Hertfordshire1£1,380 - £1,516£1,402 - £1,539Stevenage£1,455£1,4771: Range from lowest (Broxbourne) to highest (Watford)

Housing: Young People

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26584, on housing: young people, what conditions vulnerable young people have to meet in order to qualify as being in need of support.

Mr Marcus Jones: Young people’s eligibility for support with their housing costs is set out in the relevant benefit regulations.

Councillors

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that people who have been convicted of a child sex offence cannot serve as a local authority or parish councillor.

Mr Marcus Jones: During the passage of the then Cities and Devolution Bill we undertook to review the legislation on the disqualification of local authority members and to consult on proposals for change to bring the legislative rules into line with modern sentencing guidelines. Our intention is to launch the consultation as soon as practicable this year.

Housing: Children in Care

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26614, on children in care: housing, how many young people he expects to be on the Positive Pathway Framework in 2016.

Mr Marcus Jones: The Positive Pathway is a framework to support local authorities and their partners to design their services to prevent homelessness and meet the housing and support needs of vulnerable young people rather than a service to individual young people.

Housing Estates: Regeneration

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Prime Minister's announcement of 10 January 2016 on sink estates, with what bodies he discussed the redevelopment of 100 sink estates; and on what grounds the sum of £140 million for that redevelopment was arrived at.

Brandon Lewis: The Government has been in regular contact with a wide range of stakeholders to maximise opportunities to meet our ambition to deliver one million more homes. The new Estate Regeneration Advisory Panel, Chaired by , my Noble Friend, the rt. hon. Lord Heseltine, comprises a range of experts and will provide advice on how the £140 million loan fund can best be utilised, in addition to other private and public funding sources. The fund was allocated in the Spending Review assessment.

HM Treasury

Tax Avoidance

Nigel Mills: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many notices under section 93 of the Finance Act 2015 were issued by HM Revenue and Customs in the period from 1 April 2015 to 31 December 2015.

Nigel Mills: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many notifications under section 92 of the Finance Act 2015 were received by HM Revenue and Customs during the period from 1 April 2015 to 31 December 2015.

Mr David Gauke: The Diverted Profits Tax is designed to counter contrived tax arrangements used by some multinationals to shift their profits to other countries. It is deliberately set at a higher rate than corporation tax, so it acts as a deterrent and encourages more companies to pay corporation tax. No notices under section 93 Finance Act 2015 were issued during the period 1 April 2015 to 31 December 2015 but HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) received notifications from eleven companies under section 92 in relation to section 86 Finance Act 2015. For companies with accounting periods ending on or before 31 March 2016 the notification period is six months from the end of that period. HMRC is not able to disclose details of notifications relating to sections 80 and 81 of the Finance Act 2015 due to its duty to protect taxpayer confidentiality.

Multinational Companies: Taxation

Seema Malhotra: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many companies have been subject to a diverted profits charge since its introduction.

Mr David Gauke: The Diverted Profits Tax is designed to counter contrived tax arrangements used by some multinationals to shift their profits to other countries. It is deliberately set at a higher rate than corporation tax, so it acts as a deterrent and encourages more companies to pay corporation tax. To date no companies have been issued with a charging notice under section 95 Finance Act 2015 which brings diverted profits tax into charge. However, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) received notifications from eleven companies under section 92 in relation to section 86 Finance Act 2015 over the period 1 April 2015 to 31 December 2015. For companies with accounting periods ending on or before 31 March 2016 the notification period is six months from the end of that period. HMRC is not able to disclose details of notifications relating to sections 80 and 81 of the Finance Act 2015 due to its duty to protect taxpayer confidentiality.

Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services

Bridget Phillipson: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on that body's record of (a) call waiting times, (b) call handling and (c) the steps HMRC plans to take to increase the level of service to telephone customers.

Mr David Gauke: Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/minister_hospitality.htm

Multinational Companies: Taxation

Tom Elliott: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to ensure that all UK-registered companies are subject to the same tax provisions as their UK competitors providing the same services to the same customer base regardless of the official locations of the European subsidiaries of such companies.

Mr David Gauke: Along with most major economies in the world, the UK has a territorial tax system that charges corporation tax on profits earned from economic activity carried out here. The UK cannot tax profits arising from sales in the UK to the extent that those profits are generated by activities carried on outside the UK. Multinational companies’ profits are taxed in accordance with internationally agreed principles. The current international tax rules were first developed in the 1920s and the UK is playing a leading role in updating them so they are fit for purpose in today’s modern globalising economy. Tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning by multinationals requires a coordinated approach to come up with effective solutions. The UK will continue to be at the forefront of multilateral action through the G20, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the EU to reform the international tax standards to prevent aggressive tax planning by multinationals.

Banks

Richard Burgon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for the effectiveness of the ring-fence between retail and investment banking of the Prudential Regulation Authority's proposal to allow ring-fenced bodies to pay dividends to other entities in the parent group.

Harriett Baldwin: The Prudential Regulation Authority's (PRA) proposed rules allowing ring-fenced bodies to pay dividends to other entities in the parent group are entirely consistent with the ring-fencing legislation and the Independent Commission on Banking’s recommendations. The PRA has the power to prevent these payments if they deem that they would negatively impact on the viability of the ring-fenced bank.

Banks

Richard Burgon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department have had on the implementation of the ring-fence between retail and investment banking since May 2015.

Harriett Baldwin: Since May 2015, in order to ensure the smooth implementation of ring-fencing, ministers and HMT officials have met with regulators, banks, banking organisations, trustees of bank pension funds and HMRC.

Financial Services

Richard Burgon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for financial system resilience of the Prudential Regulation Authority's proposed rules on ringfencing; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin: The Government is confident that the Prudential Regulation Authority's proposed rules on ring-fencing are beneficial for financial system resilience. These are fully consistent with the Banking Reform Act (2013), and are necessary to ensure the full and timely implementation of the legislation.

Financial Services

Richard Burgon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the likely effectiveness of the ring-fence between retail and investment banking in reducing the interconnectedness of the UK financial system; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin: Ring-fencing will introduce a high degree of operational and economic independence between core retail banks and broader financial markets. The Independent Commission on Banking in 2011 recommended the ring-fencing of retail from investment banking to promote financial system resilience, and the Government agreed with this recommendation.

Financial Services

Richard Burgon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effectiveness of the ring-fence between retail and investment banking in reducing funding risk in the UK financial system; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin: Ring-fencing insulates ring-fenced banks from shocks originating elsewhere in the global financial system, and makes ring-fenced banks simpler so that monitoring and supervision is easier. The PRA are putting in place rules to ensure that the ring-fenced bank can effectively manage its liquidity.

Financial Services

Richard Burgon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for the effectiveness of the ring-fence between retail and investment banking of the Prudential Regulation Authority's proposal to allow cross-selling and cross-lending between ring-fenced bodies and other entities in the parent group in some circumstances.

Harriett Baldwin: The Prudential Regulation Authority's proposed rules allowing cross-selling and cross-lending between ring-fenced bodies and other entities in the parent group in some circumstances are consistent with the ring-fencing legislation and the Independent Commission on Banking’s recommendations. These agency arrangements simply allow for the customer to access products provided by the wider banking group within their local premises.

Minimum Wage

Caroline Lucas: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2016 to Question 26319 on the national minimum wage, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the arrears identified between April 2015 and November 2015; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Gauke: The Government takes the enforcement of National Minimum Wage very seriously. Any worker who believes that they are being paid below the minimum wage should make a complaint to the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) respond to every complaint that is referred to them by the Acas helpline. Additionally, HMRC collate and analyse data from various sources in order to identify those employers who are potentially more likely to be underpaying National Minimum Wage, so that they can undertake targeted enforcement against those employers. The Government has increased annual funding of National Minimum Wage enforcement by nearly 60% since 2013/14, providing a budget of £13.2m in 2015/16. This has enabled a significant expansion of resources dedicated to enforcing the minimum wage; there are currently 237 staff in HMRC's National Minimum Wage teams, up from 151 at the start of 2013/14. HMRC have also reviewed their ways of working to ensure a more efficient and effective service for workers.

Welfare Tax Credits

Louise Haigh: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, for how long HM Revenue and Customs is required to keep records on individual tax credit cases.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) retains records of tax credit claims for the tax year of the claim plus five years. The length of time HMRC is required to retain other tax credit records is depends on the type of record retained. Retention periods for individual documents can be found at:http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/tcmanual/tcm0322580.htm

Connaught Asset Management

Mr David Hanson: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Oral Contribution of the Economic Secretary to the Treasury of 1 February 2016, Official Report, column 748, what further progress has been made on investigations into the Connaught Income Fund, series 1.

Harriett Baldwin: The issues raised are a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) who are operationally independent from Government. The questions have been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Honorable Member by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Economic Situation: China

Julie Cooper: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the fall in China's foreign currency reserves on the UK economy.

Harriett Baldwin: China’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen over the past year, down $582.5bn since the start of 2015. However, the stock of reserves still remains sizeable, standing at $3.23 trillion. The UK’s exports to China have increased by 85% since 2010 but are still only 5% of total UK trade.

Welfare Tax Credits

Ronnie Cowan: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of tax credit investigations carried out by Concentrix under its contract with his Department have resulted in findings of (a) fraud and (b) error in the claim.

Ronnie Cowan: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax credit investigations carried out by Concentrix under its contract with his Department have resulted in (a) no change in and (b) withdrawal of the tax credit award; and how many decisions to withdraw such awards were appealed successfully.

Mr David Gauke: As at 21 February 2016 Concentrix had closed around 440,000 cases. Around 390,000 of these resulted in no amendment to the award. Around 50,000 awards have been amended, though HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on how many of these were cancelled and how many adjusted. HMRC does not separate out the number of awards that were amended for error and from the number amended for fraud. On appeals, I refer the member to the answer I provided on 15 February 2016 to question 26041.

Oil: Prices

Phil Boswell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with which financial institutions on the energy exposure of such institutions in response to the falling price of oil.

Phil Boswell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what mechanisms the Government has in place to ensure that banks with high energy exposure remain stable.

Phil Boswell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with the Prudential Regulation Authority on the level of risk at (a) financial institutions with high energy market exposure and (b) such institutions which have issued loans to the North Sea oil industry.

Phil Boswell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of (a) the effects on financial institutions with high energy exposure of the falling price of oil and (b) the effect of that falling price on businesses in the North Sea.

Harriett Baldwin: The Chancellor set out the government’s view on the challenges facing the UK economy in a speech on 7 January. The transcript of the speech is available from www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-on-challenges-facing-uk-economy-in-2016. The Chancellor and other Ministers meet regularly with regulators and the Bank of England. In addition, the Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report sets out an analysis, which can be found here:http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/fsr/2015/dec.aspxThe Financial Policy Committee’s (FPC) stress test results in December 2015 suggest that the major UK banks would be resilient to a sustained commodity price downturn. The UK now has a robust system of financial regulation, where the regulators have clear objectives and powers to deal with risks to the financial sector. The Government established the FPC to identify, monitor and address systemic risks to financial stability.

Money Laundering: Estate Agents

Sadiq Khan: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which estate agents in London have been penalised for failing to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 in each year since the introduction of those regulations; and what the level of the fine was in each such case.

Harriett Baldwin: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is unable to provide any information which would identify its customers. The Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 gives HMRC a duty of confidentiality which applies to all information it holds in connection with its functions.  In 2014-15 HMRC issued 677 penalties to the total value of £768,000. This is for all HMRC supervised businesses in the UK. The total includes estate agency businesses which HMRC supervised from 1 April 2014. This is three times the total value of penalties issued in 2013-14.

Living Wage

Jim McMahon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what formula was used to calculate the Government's proposed living wage.

Harriett Baldwin: The Government has asked the Low Pay Commission to increase the National Living Wage to 60% of median earnings by 2020. This is a level consistent with the recommendations of leading experts in the Bain Report. Our target is for the National Living Wage to reach £9 by 2020. On this basis, we have set the initial rate at £7.20 from April 2016. This marks the first step towards our target and represents a £900 a year increase in earnings for a full-time worker on the National Minimum Wage.

Productivity

Neil Coyle: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to reduce the productivity gap.

Greg Hands: The government has published “Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation”, its plan for productivity growth in the UK. This plan outlines the steps the government is taking to encourage further investment in the drivers of productivity growth, including science, education, skills and infrastructure. It also sets out the ways the government is promoting a dynamic economy through reforming planning laws, boosting competition and creating a Northern Powerhouse. These steps include: investing £6.9 billion in the UK’s research infrastructure up to 2021; introducing a levy on large employers to help deliver 3 million apprenticeships starts this Parliament; guaranteeing that all revenue raised from VED in England from 2020-21 will be allocated to a new Roads Fund and invested directly back into the strategic road network; and creating a new “zonal” system which will grant automatic permission in principle on brownfield sites.

Treasury: Meetings

Helen Goodman: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department have had with (i) arms manufacturers, (ii) tobacco manufacturers and (iii) representatives of the Israeli embassy since the period covered in the Cabinet Office's most recent ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings data release.

Harriett Baldwin: Departments publish details of Ministers meetings' with external organisations routinely on Gov.uk. Details of meetings held during the period October – December 2015 will be published in due course.

Members: Correspondence

Rob Marris: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when his Department plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West dated 11 January 2016 on the Connaught Income Fund, reference ZA2351.

Harriett Baldwin: I have replied to the hon. Member.

Equitable Life Assurance Society: Compensation

Andrew Rosindell: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Government's policy is on funding for the Equitable Life Payment Scheme that has not been disbursed.

Harriett Baldwin: Payments under the scheme will continue to be made annually to With-Profits Annuitants for the duration of their annuities.

Bank of England: Reform

Dan Jarvis: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to further reform the Bank of England.

Harriett Baldwin: The Government has set out its plans for reform of the Bank of England in the Bank of England and Financial Services Bill, which is currently progressing through Parliament.

National Infrastructure Commission

Dan Jarvis: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he next plans to attend a meeting of the National Infrastructure Commission.

Greg Hands: The agenda for meetings of the National Infrastructure Commission is set by its interim Chair, Lord Adonis.

Deutsche Bank: Fines

Gordon Marsden: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2016 to Question 25976, whether the proceeds from the £227 million fine imposed on Deutsche Bank will be specifically applied to a new new three-year fund to create 50,000 apprenticeships.

Gordon Marsden: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2016 to Question 25976, what discussions his officials have had with their counterparts in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on the mechanisms for implementing the Prime Minister's commitment of April 2015 to use the proceeds from the £227 million fine imposed on Deutsche Bank to create a new three-year fund to create 50,000 apprenticeships.

Greg Hands: As we have said previously, this government will be spending twice as much in cash terms on apprenticeships by 2020 compared to 2010. Spending on apprenticeships in England will be £2.5bn in 2019-20. The BIS spending review settlement for apprenticeships reflects the government’s commitment regarding the proceeds of the Libor fine the FCA announced in April 2015. Further announcements that support the government’s commitment to delivering employment opportunities for young people will be announced in due course.

EU Budget: Contributions

Mr Philip Hollobone: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the net annual UK financial contribution to the EU is expected to be in each of the next three years.

Mr David Gauke: The Office for Budget Responsibility does not provide a forecast for net UK contributions to EU budgets, and does not take into account receipts directly received by the private sector.

Dorneywood: Repairs and Maintenance

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much public money has been spent on repairs to Dorneywood in the last 12 months.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times Dorneywood has been redecorated in each of the last five years.

Harriett Baldwin: The Dorneywood estate is the responsibility of the Dorneywood Trust. As such the Government does not hold details of redecoration or repairs to the estate.

Coinage

Gareth Thomas: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Swedish government over their decision to end the production of coins containing nickel; whether he plans to further investigate the health risks posed to those who suffer from nickel allergy of the decision to switch to steel nickel-plated 5p and 10p coins in 2012; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin: Nickel has been used in UK coinage for over 60 years and nickel-plated coins introduced in the UK in 2012 were already in use in Canada, New Zealand and other countries around the world. Independent tests have concluded that there is no increased risk to people from handling the nickel-plated steel five pence and ten pence coins compared to coins made of cupronickel alloy.

Treasury: Cleaning Services

Catherine West: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.

Harriett Baldwin: The cleaning service at HM Treasury is provided by through a service contract, let by the landlord for 1 Horse Guards Road (Exchequer Partnership). HM Treasury does not directly employ cleaners. However, the contracted cleaners that work within 1 Horse Guards Road are paid £9.15 per hour which will increase to £9.40 in April 2016.

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Cabinet Office: Meetings

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what meetings (a) she and (b) Ministers of her Department have had with (i) arms manufacturers, (ii) tobacco manufacturers and (iii) representatives of the Israeli embassy since the period covered in the Cabinet Office's most recent ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings data release.

Andrea Leadsom: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to her by my rt. hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 26th February 2016 to Question 27634: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-22/27634/.

Energy

Sir David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 24408, if she will discuss with the Sustainable Energy Association and other relevant bodies how to achieve the potential for buildings to contribute to the Government's goals on reducing carbon and tackling fuel poverty.

Andrea Leadsom: DECC officials and ministers will continue to discuss, with a range of stakeholders, the options for buildings to contribute to reducing carbon and tackling fuel poverty. Our approach is to consider the overall use of energy in buildings, and not energy efficiency or heat in isolation.

Fuel Poverty

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to tackle fuel poverty in the UK.

Andrea Leadsom: Holding answer received on 25 February 2016



A reformed domestic supplier obligation (ECO) from April 2017, which will run for 5 years, will upgrade the energy efficiency of over 200,000 homes per year tackling the root cause of fuel poverty. Our extension of the Warm Home Discount to 2020/21 at current levels of £320m per annum will also help vulnerable households with their energy bills.We intend to focus our efforts through ECO and the Warm Home Discount more effectively on the fuel poor, and will be consulting on our future approach in the spring.

Heating

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will instruct the National Measurement and Regulation Office to publish a list of all known heat networks in the UK.

Andrea Leadsom: In the final quarter of this year DECC will publish summary tables, including regional breakdowns, of the data gathered as a result of the notification requirement in the Heat Networks (Metering and Billing) Regulations. Due to the commercially sensitive nature of the data, this information will be aggregated rather than a list of individual networks.

Energy: Meters

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many smart (a) electric and (b) gas meters have been installed in Calderdale since the smart meter programme started; and what estimate she has made of the total savings achieved by consumers as a result of the smart meter programme to date.

Andrea Leadsom: Data on the number of smart electricity and gas meters installed in Great Britain is set out in the Government’s ‘Smart Meters, Great Britain, Quarterly report to end September 2015’, published on 22 December 2015: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistical-release-and-data-smart-meters-great-britain-quarter-3-2014. The roll-out is making good progress with more than 2 million meters now operating under the Programme. Currently, data is published only at Great Britain level. Data is not collected from energy suppliers in a format that allows constituency- or local authority-level data to be produced. In March 2015 DECC published research on the effects of the early roll-out of smart meters – The Early Learning Project: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/smart-metering-early-learning-project-and-small-scale-behaviour-trials. This project found reductions in energy consumption consistent with DECC’s steady state projections for domestic consumers. The projections are 2.8% for electricity (prepayment and credit), 2% for gas (credit) and 0.5% for gas (prepayment).

Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme

Angus Brendan MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department has undertaken a value-for-money assessment for gas absorption heat pumps for inclusion within the Renewable Heat Incentive; and if she will place in the Library a copy of such an assessment.

Andrea Leadsom: Holding answer received on 26 February 2016



We intend to reform the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) to improve value for money and reduce costs; improve cost control and budget management; and ensure the scheme focuses more on our long-term needs, while contributing to both our carbon and renewable energy targets. We plan to consult on the changes shortly. Therefore, I am unable to make specific commitments as to the future shape of the scheme at this point. DECC commissioned a suite of evidence to look into the cost and performance of technologies which are not currently eligible for the RHI but could be considered for future inclusion; one of which was Gas Driven Heat Pumps – available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/371695/RHI_Evidence_Report_-_Gas_Driven_Heat_Pumps.pdf We have not undertaken a formal value for money assessment for the inclusion of gas absorption heat pumps under the RHI, though we have undertaken a more general assessment of whether gas absorption heat pumps should be supported within the RHI. Given the challenges of reforming the existing RHI scheme, we are not persuaded that now is the time to also consider opening the scheme to technologies which are not currently supported. Instead, we want to start building a dialogue around the long-term policy framework required for the low-carbon technologies needed in the future, which does not rely on public subsidy.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she plans to open her Department's consultation on changes to the Warm Home Discount scheme.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government announced in the Spending Review on 25 November 2015 that the Warm Home Discount scheme would be extended to 2020/21 at current levels of £320m per year, rising with inflation, to help households who are at risk of fuel poverty with their energy bills. Government will publically consult on changes to the scheme later this year.

Electricity Generation: Technology

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she will publish the findings of the Frontier Economics analysis commissioned by her Department in 2014 with the aim of further systematising her Department's understanding of the whole system impacts of electricity generation technologies.

Andrea Leadsom: DECC commissioned Frontier Economics late in 2014 to undertake a project on the Whole System Impacts of Electricity Generation Technologies on the electricity system. Given the variety of different terminologies and approaches to whole system impacts in existing literature, the core aim of the project is to set out a comprehensive framework to define whole system impacts and their components and drivers, which can be used to further systematise DECC’s modelling capability. The resulting methodological report is nearing completion following peer review by experts in the field of whole system impacts.

Department of Energy and Climate Change: Health

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what her Department's wellness strategy is.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Energy and Climate Change is aligned with the Civil Service Health & Well-being Strategy which was agreed by the Civil Service People Board. This focuses on three priority areas:Mental HealthMusculoskeletal HealthHealthy Lifestyle In DECC this means we ensure visible senior leadership of the well-being agenda, we encourage all managers to undertake mental health awareness training increasing manager capability through Civil Service Learning training. We have been adopting the Public Health England 'Workplace Well-being Charter' and promoting ‘Time to Change’. The Department offers support to staff including ‘Employee Assistance’. The Department is also running wellbeing events and initiatives over the coming year.

Coal: Employment

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will place in the Library any information her Department holds on the number of jobs imported coal supports in each of its source countries; and if she will make a statement.

Andrea Leadsom: The number of jobs imported coal supports in each of its source countries is not information that the Department of Energy and Climate Change holds.

Electric Cables

Dr James Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps the Government has taken to encourage underground cabling connecting (a) wind farm and (b) other such installations to distribution centres in order to present visual amenity and prevent adverse environmental impacts.

Andrea Leadsom: The Government expects network companies to use the most appropriate technologies available to provide the required connection for the particular project in line with its customer’s connection needs, its statutory obligations to have regard to the environment and to mitigating adverse impacts where reasonable, and relevant planning requirements. This is reinforced by the Government’s energy National Policy Statements (NPSs) in particular NPS EN-1[1] and NPS EN-52, which make it clear that proper consideration should be given to all feasible means of connection, including undergrounding.  [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/47854/1938-overarching-nps-for-energy-en1.pdf[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/47858/1942-national-policy-statement-electricity-networks.pdf

Biofuels: Yorkshire and the Humber

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she has taken to support the Humber region's biomass projects.

Andrea Leadsom: DECC officials have met with local biomass generators and developers. There are several biomass projects at different stages of development around Immingham, Hull and Stallingborough. The £162million investment at the Brigg Renewable Energy Plant, a 40 MW straw fired biomass plant, has recently opened. Biomass generation is contributing jobs to Humberside. As a result of £100million in investment, the Humber International Terminal (HIT) at the Port of Immingham is already receiving some of the world’s largest shipments of biomass, destined for Drax, in the adjacent county of North Yorkshire. Drax is supported by the Renewables Obligation and has secured a Contract for Difference to convert another unit to biomass (under the Final Investment Decision enabling Renewables programme). If State Aid approval for the contract is obtained, the Humber will see some 6 million tonnes per annum of pellets imported into the UK. This will enhance its position for future business, including in the heat sector. The UK government continue to support Drax with the State Aid case.

Department for Energy and Climate Change: Publications

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many (a) publications, (b) consultation documents and (c) circulars her Department has issued since August 2012; and what the title was of each such publication, consultation document or circular.

Andrea Leadsom: DECC migrated to gov.uk in Jan 2013. Archives of the old DECC website (www.decc.gov.uk) are available from the National Archives: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/*/http://www.decc.gov.uk/. From Jan 2013 to date, DECC published a total of 2513 publications and 181 consultations. Some consultations from before Jan 2013 are included on gov.uk, as the responses to these consultations were published after the Jan 2013 migration. It has not been possible to identify every single piece of material requested due to the migration to the new Gov.UK system in January 2013, and the disproportionate cost involved. A complete list of all DECC publications can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?keywords=&publication_filter_option=all&topics%5B%5D=all&departments%5B%5D=department-of-energy-climate-change&official_document_status=all&world_locations%5B%5D=all&from_date=01%2F01%2F2013&to_date=&commit=Refresh+results. DECC publishes a regular email newsletter (DECC Review) to stakeholders. This has been published 47 times since 1 August 2012.

Northern Ireland Office

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

Dr Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what plans the Government has to ensure comparable treatment in respect of (a) immunity from prosecution and (b) prosecution for former service personnel who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and for former members of paramilitary and terrorist organisations during that period.

Dr Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assurance the Government has given to (a) former members of Irish terrorist organisations and (b) former service personnel on any continuing liability to prosecution for alleged crimes committed during the Troubles; and if she will make a statement.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: Criminal investigations and prosecutions throughout the United Kingdom are matters for the police and prosecuting authorities acting independently of the Government and politicians. If there is considered to be evidence or intelligence of involvement in crime, individuals will be investigated by the police. That applies equally to everyone, without fear or favour.As I made clear in my response to Lady Justice Hallett’s report on the so-called ‘On-the-Runs’ scheme established by the former Labour Government there is no immunity from prosecution for terrorists in Northern Ireland. This Government believes in the rule of law and we would not countenance amnesties or immunity from prosecution.

Coroners: Northern Ireland

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the early release of Stormont House legacy funding to support legacy inquests.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: Holding answer received on 25 February 2016



Reform is essential if the legacy inquest system is to deliver effective outcomes for families. The current system was never designed to cope with a large number of highly complex and sometimes linked cases involving very sensitive information. I welcome the efforts of the Lord Chief Justice to review legacy inquests. If workable inquest reform plans come forward, serious consideration would be given to their potential merits.

Northern Ireland Office: Health

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what her Department's wellness strategy is.

Mrs Theresa Villiers: The Northern Ireland Office’s wellness strategy is to promote and sustain a healthy, safe and supportive working environment for all our people. We do this by: Providing absence and welfare policies and workplace support services;Maintaining a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination, bullying and harassment in the workplace;Ensuring the working environment is safe and meets Health and Safety legislative requirements;Promoting an open-minded, respectful and inclusive workplace. As a small department the Northern Ireland Office has also secured access to the Ministry of Justice’s networks and services for our staff to use.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Hazardous Substances: Waste Disposal

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to improve the standard of hazardous waste management in response to the recommendations contained in the assessment of member states' performance published by the European Commission in January 2016; and if she will make a statement.

Rory Stewart: We welcome the assessment of hazardous waste management across European Union Member States, in particular the recognition of the high levels of support and guidance that UK authorities offer those producing and managing hazardous waste. We are committed to ensuring hazardous waste is managed in a responsible and environmentally sound manner and continue to work in partnership with the waste management industry to achieve this. We have started a light-touch review of the 2010 Strategy for Hazardous Waste Management in England and will consider the report’s findings as part of that review. We will publish the results of the review later this year.

Livestock: Disease Control

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to improve biosecurity on farms.

George Eustice: A joint government and industry bovine TB biosecurity campaign was launched in November 2015 and will run for 12 months. It aims to increase the number of farmers implementing TB biosecurity measures on their farms and whilst trading cattle. The biosecurity campaign already includes a TB Hub bringing together information, advice, guidance and research material on how to prevent TB through biosecurity and risk based trading, an information bTB website allowing farmers to view information on TB breakdowns in their area on an interactive map and a Five Point Plan setting out good practice for TB biosecurity. Several further steps in the biosecurity campaign are being launched throughout 2016. More generally, on-farm biosecurity is part of a wider landscape of measures to provide effective protection from animal and plant disease. Defra’s wider activities on biosecurity contribute to improving the resilience of the system as a whole. The Rural Development Programme animal health projects have a focus on tackling exemplar diseases in cattle, sheep and pigs sectors through improved farm disease risk management practices. It is intended that this will have a wider benefit in improving farm biosecurity practices.

Agriculture: Young People

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to encourage more young people to go into farming.

George Eustice: The Government is working with the food and farming industries to encourage bright, talented young people into agriculture. We aim to treble the number of food and farming apprenticeships by 2020. Agriculture and related subjects is the fastest-growing subject at university, with a 4.6% increase in student numbers last year. We are also working with industry partners and others to build links between food and farming businesses and schools. The Great British food campaign will help to highlight the breadth of careers the food and farming industries can offer.

Floods: Insurance

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many homes she estimates will benefit from Flood Re in (a) the North West, (b) Lancashire and (c) Pendle.

Rory Stewart: Flood Re is on target to start operating on 4 April. The Scheme will help owners of property at high risk of flooding by ensuring that, for the first time, they can access affordable flood insurance regardless of where they live.We expect Flood Re to cover up to 350,000 properties across the country and insurers are free to decide which properties to pass to Flood Re. The number of properties passed to Flood Re in particular areas will become evident once the scheme is in operation. There is no limit to the number of properties that can be ceded to Flood Re.

Dangerous Dogs

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs on the restricted breed list were destroyed in each of the last three years.

George Eustice: Numbers of dogs destroyed as a result of being a dog of a specified type (section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991) are not held centrally. Such records would be held by each police force.

Dangerous Dogs

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs were destroyed following violent behaviour in each of the last three years.

George Eustice: The numbers of dogs destroyed as a result of being dangerously out of control (section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991) are not held centrally. Such records would be held by each police force.

EU Environmental Policy

Gavin Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 264385, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that EU environmental law is transposed and implemented across the whole of the UK.

Rory Stewart: I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave on the 22 February 2016, PQ UIN 26438. The obligation to transpose and implement EU environmental law applies across the whole of the UK, although the responsibility for transposition and implementation in this area is a competence of the devolved administrations.

Animal Products: Waste Disposal

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to make an assessment of the environmental effects of the disposal of imported (a) animal blood, faeces and urine and (b) other biological by-products in rural areas of the UK.

Rory Stewart: We have no plans to make such an assessment.

Malnutrition

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will include the Food Insecurity Experience Scale survey in the next Family Food survey in order to assess households' vulnerability to hunger.

George Eustice: We do not intend to measure household food insecurity because there is no single definition of food insecurity. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) is one method, but the factors that impact on household food security are complex. There are multiple indicators such as quality, variety and desirability of diet as well as total intake, not all of which are measured consistently. It is therefore very difficult and potentially misleading to develop a single classification of food insecurity. The OECD ‘Society at a Glance 2014’ report published figures showing that the proportion of those who say they are finding it difficult to afford food in the UK declined over the past 5 years 2007 - 2012: from 9.8% to 8.1%. This was based on Gallup World Poll data which actually used one of the questions which form part of the FIES.

Agriculture: Regulation

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to implement the findings of the Report of the Independent Farming Regulation Taskforce, published in May 2011.

George Eustice: The Government (Defra, the Department for Transport, Food Standards Agency and the Home Office) accepted 137 of more than 200 recommendations made by the Farming Regulation Task Force in 2011.The Farming Regulation Task Force Implementation Group published a final assessment of our delivery in April 2014 in which they concluded that we had completed or made progress against the vast majority of the accepted recommendations. The remaining 27 recommendations are currently being reviewed as part of the ‘Cutting Red Tape: Review of the Information managements in the Agricultural Sector’. A report on the findings of this review will be published shortly.

Green Belt: Christchurch

Mr Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will place in the Library a copy of the representations which Natural England made in response to the (a) proposal in the draft Christchurch local plan for housing development on green belt land at Marsh Lane, Christchurch, and (b) planning application by Dorset County Council for a two-form entry primary school on green belt land at Marsh Lane, Christchurch.

Rory Stewart: Natural England made two formal responses to Christchurch and East Dorset Council authority about the proposed housing at Marsh Lane which are attachedSubsequently we provided Dorset County Council (DCC) with advice on the proposed New Christchurch Primary School in relation to the Habitats Regulations Assessment undertaken by DCC. Our response is also attached.Planning documents related to the New Christchurch Primary School, Marsh Lane, Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 2NH (8/15/0665) can be accessed via this link: http://countyplanning.dorsetforyou.com/ePlanningOPS/.



PQ 28405 - Letter to Christchurch Primary School
(PDF Document, 158.35 KB)




PQ 28405 - Marsh Lane
(PDF Document, 77.85 KB)




PQ 28405 - Marsh Lane
(PDF Document, 125.4 KB)

Department of Health

Mental Health

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to implement the recommendations of the Mental Health Taskforce's report, The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016.

Alistair Burt: The Government welcomes and accepts the recommendations from the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. The Taskforce estimates that the priority recommendations for the National Health Service set out in their report will cost an additional £1 billion annually by the year 2020/21: by the end of this Parliament we will make the Taskforce’s recommendations a reality. Investment in mental health rose to its highest ever level, an estimated £11.7 billion, in 2014/15. The £1 billion of additional investment announced by the Prime Minister last month will be in place by 2020/21 and builds on the £280 million per year of new funding for children and young people’s mental health announced last year. This funding will make an important contribution to plugging the gap and fulfilling the Taskforce’s recommendations, helping one million additional children, young people and adults to access high quality care by 2020/21. How new investment for NHS priority recommendations is identified and implemented will be for NHS England to determine as part of the planning and allocations process. We anticipate that the majority of commitments outlined in this report will be delivered through clinical commissioning groups. Further guidance will be issued shortly as part of the new Sustainability and Transformation Planning process: this will set expectations for how funding will be invested to deliver on the Taskforce recommendations for the NHS and how areas will be supported to deliver them over the following four years.

Dementia

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of adults in (a) Calder Valley, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) England have been diagnosed with dementia in each of the last 10 years.

Jane Ellison: Information is not available in the format requested. The number of people recorded on the practice dementia disease register is available in the Quality and Outcomes Framework, published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, from 2006/07, when dementia indicators were introduced into the framework. The proportion of patients diagnosed is not available but the numbers of people on the dementia register are available. This is a measure of prevalence rather than incidence.

Diabetes

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of public health budgets are allocated to services related to diabetes in 2015-16.

Jane Ellison: There is no specific allocation for public health services related to diabetes. Local authorities receive a grant which must be spent on public health, but are best placed to assess local needs, prioritise and deploy available resources accordingly. The NHS Health Check is a national programme that seeks to offer preventative checks for all those in the population aged between 40-74 to assess their risk of vascular disease, including diabetes. NHS England commissions the NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme but does not receive a specific allocation for this service.

Clinical Commissioning Groups: Leicestershire

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the salaries are of the directors of each clinical commissioning group in Leicestershire.

Alistair Burt: Information about the salaries of the directors of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) is published in each CCG’s annual report, which are available on the CCGs’ websites. East Leicestershire and Rutland CCG’s annual report can be found at: https://eastleicestershireandrutlandccg.nhs.uk/about-us/publications/reports-and-plans/ West Leicestershire CCG’s annual report can be found at: http://www.westleicestershireccg.nhs.uk/page/corporate-documents Leicester City CCG’s annual report can be found at: https://www.leicestercityccg.nhs.uk/about-us/strategies-and-reports/

Ambulance Services

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times in (a) the East Midlands and (b) England.

Jane Ellison: Ambulance services are facing unprecedented demand, delivering over 2,800 more emergency journeys every day compared to 2010 and still continue to respond to the majority of life-threatening cases in under eight minutes. The Department continues to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to monitor and support performance across all ambulance trusts in 2015-16. In the longer term, NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Review will aim to tackle the root causes of the increasing demand on urgent and emergency care services. East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust has put measures in place with local partners to address performance issues, including rapid handover protocols with hospitals, a significant recruitment drive, a sickness reduction plan for staff, and working with local NHS 111 providers to ensure that patients are sent the most appropriate response at the right time.

Members: Correspondence

Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to respond to the letter to his Department from the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West of 23 December 2015, on reform of UK surrogacy law, reference ZA2272.

Jane Ellison: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 19 February, in response to his letter of 21 January, which was transferred from the Ministry of Justice on 26 January.

Meningitis: Vaccination

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of children in England received the meningitis B vaccine in 2015-16; and what steps he is taking to maximise take-up rates.

Jane Ellison: Meningitis B (MenB) immunisation for infants was introduced on 1 September 2015 on the basis of expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the independent body which advises Government on all immunisation matters. The vaccine is offered alongside other routine immunisations at two and four months of age, with a booster dose at 12-13 months. A limited one-off catch-up programme was also offered, targeting infants born in May and June 2015.Preliminary vaccine coverage for children born in July 2015 was 94.0% for one dose and 84.8% for two doses when measured at six months of age.The introduction of MenB immunisation has been supported by a comprehensive media and communications campaign in partnership with health partners and meningitis charities. This resulted in significant coverage across national, local, parenting and social media. New patient information leaflets and posters have also supported the campaign, and comprehensive guidance has been added to the NHS Choices website. Existing children’s immunisation information booklets and leaflets have been amended to reflect the new immunisation schedule. A training factsheet and video for health professionals have also been produced.

Health Services: Foreign Nationals

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he last issued guidance to NHS providers on systems for recharging to other countries the cost of NHS treatment of foreign nationals.

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much was paid to which countries for overseas health treatment of UK nationals in 2015.

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much was recharged to (a) other EU countries and (b) non-EU countries for health treatment by the NHS in 2015.

Alistair Burt: An updated version of the ‘guidance on implementing the overseas visitor hospital charging regulations’ was issued to National Health Service bodies on 1 February 2016. This guidance explains what should happen when an overseas visitor, including from the European Economic Area (EEA) needs NHS treatment provided by an NHS hospital in England. The Department on behalf of the United Kingdom Government reimburses other EEA countries and Switzerland for the cost of providing treatment to people we are responsible for under European Union law, irrespective of nationality. In the same way, other EEA countries and Switzerland reimburse the UK for the cost of the NHS providing treatment to people they are responsible for under EU law, including UK nationals insured in another EEA country or Switzerland. The table below provides information about how much the UK paid to other EEA countries and Switzerland, and how much was paid to the UK for NHS provided treatments. Visitors from other countries are charged directly for their healthcare.  EEA Medical CostsMember State Claims (against UK)UK Claims (against EEA, Switzerland)  2014-152014-15  Austria£5,473,017£366,756  Belgium£5,816,026£4,323,308  Bulgaria£255,924£363,911  Cyprus£10,132,385£347,045  Czech Republic£617,758£471,140  Denmark (Waiver)N/AN/A  Estonia (Waiver)N/A£154,928  Finland (Waiver)£10,047£243,740  France£147,685,772£6,730,292  Germany£25,873,954£2,189,664  Greece£2,682,953£1,732,047  Hungary (Waiver)£412£22,196  Iceland£295,943£11,331  Ireland£215,313,962£19,214,031  Italy£7,304,484£1,510,850  Latvia£14,725£300,319  Liechtenstein£193£0  Lithuania£283,625£293,616  Luxembourg£683,410£75,151  Malta (Waiver)N/AN/A  Netherlands£8,655,688£3,251,412  Norway (Waiver)£30,370£0  Poland£4,336,701£1,523,402  Portugal£6,351,400£700,653  Romania£13,330£498,354  Slovakia£438,715£124,348  Slovenia£266,623£107,948  Spain£223,290,021£3,412,338  Sweden£1,918,038£1,367,213  Switzerland£6,672,560£400,131  Total£674,418,036£49,736,125  Source: Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) exercise. Totals are based on estimates of the costs of European Economic Area (EEA) healthcare claims made annually for the purposes of provisions made in the Department of Health accounts in accordance with Treasury resource accounting rules.Notes: Waiver is an agreed intentional relinquishment of healthcare costs between Member StatesDenmark – Full waiverEstonia and Norway – Waiver, excepting former Article 22.1c (patient referral) & Article 55.1c (industrial injury) claimsFinland, Hungary and Malta – Waiver, excepting former Article 22.1c (patient referral) claims

Blood: Contamination

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2016 to Question 22461, on blood: contamination, how many cases of liability have been established for people with haemophilia infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C through NHS-supplied contaminated blood or blood products.

Jane Ellison: These infections are a tragedy for those affected but they occurred before blood donor screening tests or methods of viral inactivation were available in the United Kingdom. In 1991, a case brought by haemophilia patients infected with HIV was settled out of court with no liability established. In 2001 the National Blood Authority was found liable under the Consumer Protection Act for infection with hepatitis C in relation to whole blood caused to 117 patients infected between 1988 and 1991. It is not known if any of these plaintiffs were haemophilia patients. Since 1988, ex-gratia financial support schemes have been set up for people who have been affected by HIV and/or hepatitis C through treatment with National Health Service-supplied blood or blood products. To date over £390 million has been paid out to those affected through five different organisations funded by the health departments.

Blood: Contamination

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Quality of 20 July 2015, Official Report, column 1227, for what reasons dependent children are not included in the consultation seeking views on proposed reforms to the schemes supporting those infected with, or affected by, HIV and/or hepatitis C through NHS-supplied blood products.

Jane Ellison: Those already infected with hepatitis C and/or HIV through National Health Service-supplied blood or blood products and all bereaved partners/spouses of those infected are entitled to apply for discretionary means-tested payments of support, which could be used for dependent children. The charitable bodies make payments on the basis of need, in accordance with their specific objectives, enabling such support to be targeted to those in greater financial need. The consultation seeks views on providing discretionary payments for travel and accommodation costs relating to ill health. These payments are not guaranteed from year to year and those in receipt of these payments are informed of this. Responses to the consultation will help us to decide if this is a viable proposal and we welcome any suggestions respondents may have in relation to the proposals and what would be of benefit to them. No decisions will be made about the shape and structure of a new scheme until after the consultation closes on 15 April 2016.

Dialysis Machines

Julie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost to the NHS has been of supporting a patient on dialysis in each of the last three years.

Jane Ellison: The information is not available in the format requested. National Health Service reference costs are the average unit costs to NHS hospital trusts of providing defined services to patients in a given year. Reference costs for acute care are published by healthcare resource group (HRG), which are standard groupings of similar treatments that use similar resources. The HRGs describe renal dialysis activity for the treatment of chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury separately. NHS reference costs data for each of the years requested can be found at the following links: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/480791/2014-15_National_Schedules.xlsx https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/397469/03a_2013-14_National_Schedule_-_CF-NET_updated.xls https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/260405/2012-13_national_schedule_of_reference_costs.xls.

Blood: Contamination

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral statement of 26 March 2015, Official Report, column 1423, on the Penrose Report on contaminated blood, when the Government plans to respond to the findings of that report.

Jane Ellison: Lord Penrose made one recommendation in the Final Report, to ‘take all reasonable steps to offer a hepatitis C test to anyone who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 who has not been tested for hepatitis C’ through reminding general practitioners, nurses and other clinical staff of this matter, along with the National Health Service guidance to offer a hepatitis C test to those who may be at risk. The Penrose Inquiry was set up by the Scottish Government and so there is no requirement for the Department in England to provide a formal Government response to the final report published on 25 March 2015. We have, however implemented the recommendation in the Penrose Report by issuing reminders as recorded in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 20 July 2015 (Official Record HCWS146) and addressed in the Contaminated Blood Products debate (HC Deb, 9 September 2015, c86WH).

Arthritis

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment the Government has made of trends and development in the quality of care given by NHS trusts to people with rheumatoid arthritis in each year from 2010 to 2015.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment the Government has made of the extent to which NHS providers have met NICE quality standard on rheumatoid arthritis since 2013.

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that the Government meets its commitment that all patients throughout England with musculoskeletal conditions have the support they need to live healthily and independently, with better control over the care they receive, notwithstanding reductions in public health budgets.

Jane Ellison: Since 1 April 2013, the Government has set out high level strategic ambitions for the National Health Service through the Mandate. For patients with long term conditions (LTCs), including musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, we have asked the NHS to improve the care and support of patients, helping them to live healthily and independently, with much better control over the care they receive. In response, NHS England has set out a range of actions designed to deliver this, central to which was implementation of the House of Care model, which is designed to support the delivery of person-centred, coordinated care. The House of Care enables individuals to make informed decisions about their treatment and empowers them to self-manage their LTCs in partnership with health and care professionals. NHS England has provided data, tools and guidance to support local services in identifying those most likely to benefit from a care planning approach. Specifically on MSK conditions, the National Clinical Director for MSK, Peter Kay, has been working in partnership with the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance, to develop new MSK clinical networks across England to build consensus on the way forward for models of care. In terms of assessment, the first annual report of the National Clinical Audit of Rheumatoid and Early Inflammatory Arthritis, commissioned on behalf of NHS England by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), was published on 22 January 2016. This report, which includes data from 1 February 2014 to 30 April 2015, assesses the quality of care by specialist rheumatology services using criteria derived from sources such as the Rheumatoid Arthritis Quality Standard, published by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in June 2013. The report identifies that although most services offer prompt educational support and agree targets for treatment with their patients, performance against criteria for referral and assessment could be improved. Since the audit, HQIP has reported that a number of trusts have successfully reconfigured their services in order to improve patient care. More information can be found at the following link: www.hqip.org.uk/national-programmes/a-z-of-nca/arthritis-rheumatoid-and-early-inflammatory

Department of Health: Meetings

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department have had with (i) arms manufacturers, (ii) tobacco manufacturers and (iii) representatives of the Israeli embassy since the period covered in the Cabinet Office's most recent ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings data release.

Jane Ellison: Departments publish details of Ministers meetings' with external organisations routinely on Gov.uk. Details of meetings held during the period October – December 2015 will be published in due course.

Junior Doctors: Conditions of Employment

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has allocated funding to defend a legal challenge against his decision to impose a new junior doctors contract.

Ben Gummer: The Department has an allocated budget to fund the legal services it requires, which would include funding for any challenge in relation to the junior doctors’ contract.

Department of Health: Ministerial Policy Advisers

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the (a) policy and (b) other responsibilities are of each special adviser in his Department.

Jane Ellison: The Code of Conduct for Special Advisers sets out the role of special advisers and describes the range of activities they may undertake. Copies of the Code of Conduct are available in the Library and on-line at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/468340/CODE_OF_CONDUCT_FOR_SPECIAL_ADVISERS_-_15_OCTOBER_2015_FINAL.pdf

Mental Health Services: Greater London

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many occasions mental health trusts in London have paid for private beds since 2010; and on each such occasion (a) from which organisation the bed was purchased and (b) what the cost of that purchase was to the public purse.

Alistair Burt: The information requested is not held centrally.

Mental Health Services: Greater London

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many occasions a Mental Health Act 1983 assessment requested on someone in custody in London took longer than 24 hours in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt: The information requested is not held centrally. The Policing and Crime Bill, currently before Parliament, will seek to reduce the maximum length of time a person can be detained under section 135 or 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 from 72 to 24 hours, to make clear that people should be assessed as quickly as possible.

Mental Health Services: Finance

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 3 on page 5 of the Five Year Forward View Mental Health Task Force report, published on 15 February 2016, if he will make it his policy to provide equal funding for mental health services.

Alistair Burt: We are committed to achieving parity of esteem between mental health and physical health. The Mental Health Taskforce estimates that the priority recommendations for the National Health Service set out in their report will cost an additional £1 billion annually by the year 2020/21. By the end of this Parliament we will make the Taskforce’s recommendations a reality. This builds on the £1.4 billion over this Parliament that has been previously announced for transforming children and young people’s mental health and improving support for eating disorders. All of the Taskforce report recommendations are funded from within the overall envelope agreed in the Spending Review. All of the £1 billion announced with the Taskforce report represents additional investment over and above what was allocated to the NHS in 2015/16. We are already spending more money on mental health than ever before – an estimated £11.7 billion last year. This shows our commitment to achieving an equal status between mental and physical health services. We have been clear that commissioners must continue to increase investment in mental health services each year at a level which at least matches their overall expenditure increase. We will monitor this closely to ensure this happens and know that clinical commissioning group spend is on track to increase as expected.

Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of in which type of healthcare there is greatest geographical disparity of treatment (a) availability, (b) choice and (c) outcomes across England.

Jane Ellison: No such assessment has been made. However, the Right Care programme actively uses variation between clinical commissioning groups to help identify those diseases or conditions that have the potential for greatest improvement. Indicators used include prevalence, treatment and outcomes. The NHS Atlas of Variation, Commissioning for Value Packs and indicators in the National Health Service Outcomes Framework and Public Health Outcomes Framework provide publicly accessible resources to compare geographical areas and highlight health inequalities and other variation across a wide variety of indicators.

Behaviour Disorders: Children

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of (a) all children and (b) children with mental health conditions aged five to 16 have conduct disorder.

Alistair Burt: Data on the number and proportion of children aged 5–16 years diagnosed with a conduct disorder is not routinely collected centrally. The most recent survey, Mental health of children and young people in Great Britain, 2004, published by the Office for National Statistics in 2005, showed that 5.8% of children aged five to 16 had conduct disorders. This represents 60.4% of the 9.6% of children with any mental health disorder at that time. However, the Department is commissioning a new national prevalence survey of children and young people’s mental health – the first since 2004. The survey will estimate the extent of mental ill health in the 2-19 year old population. Final publication of findings is expected in 2018.

Mental Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people with severe and long-term mental health issues and whose care is coordinated through the Care Programme Approach in each year since 2010 had had a formal meeting to review their care in the previous 12 months.

Alistair Burt: Information on the number of people using National Health Service funded adult secondary mental health services, including those who spent time on the Care Programme Approach (CPA), is shown in the following table. England2010/112011/122012/132013/142014/15Total People1,287,7301,607,1531,590,3321,746,6981,835,996People on CPA263,935407,370359,368357,732335,727 These figures includes people who have been on CPA for a number of months or years as well as people who had only recently been assigned to CPA. These figures count each individual once, regardless of the number of times they accessed services in the year. Because of major changes to the Mental Health Minimum Dataset and submission process, figures for these years are not directly comparable. The scope was expanded to include independent sector providers in 2011/12 and learning disability services in 2014/15. Major changes to the submission process between 2010/11 and 2011/12 also contributed to an overall increase in numbers. A snapshot count of people on CPA at the end of 2014/15 who had been on CPA for at least 12 months and the number and proportion of these who had received a CPA review within the last 12 months is shown in the following table. It has not been possible to provide data for earlier years. EnglandMarch 2015People on CPA at the end of the month who had been on CPA for 12 months126,679People on CPA for 12 months with a review in the previous 12 months101,592Percentage of people on CPA for 12 months with a review80.2% The process of the CPA recognises that reviews should be held at least every year. However, where an individual’s needs are sufficiently complicated to require more complex care co-ordination, the frequency of review meetings will be increased.

Dental Services: Children

Mr Graham Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many 0 to 17 year olds have received dental treatment in (a) Nottingham North constituency, (b) Nottingham and (c) the UK in 2015.

Alistair Burt: Dental activity is measured through the number of courses of treatment delivered. Data has been provided for the number of courses of treatment for 0 to 17 year olds for the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015. Final data for 2015/16 will be published in August 2016. GeographyCourses of treatment (CoT) for child patientsNottingham North Constituency21,806 Nottingham Local Authority67,023   England and Wales11,509,227  Sources: NHS Dental Services of the NHS Business Services AuthorityNotes:A CoT is defined as:a. an examination of a patient, an assessment of their oral health, and the planning of any treatment to be provided to that patient as a result of that examination and assessment; andb. the provision of any planned treatment (including any treatment planned at a time other than the time of the initial examination) to that patient.

Health: Children

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress his Department has made on developing a national measure of child development at age two to two-and-a-half as part of the public health framework; and when he expects that measure to be introduced.

Jane Ellison: The Department is leading work to develop an indicator of child development at age 2-2½ to be included in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) from 2017. The population measure will give a national picture of child development at age 2 and will also help local areas to assess the impact of services for 0-2 year olds and inform local commissioning. Since April 2015, the Department has asked all health visiting teams in England to use the evidence based Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ-3) as part of children’s health and development reviews at age 2-2½ to generate data for the indicator. The Department has worked with Health Education England to develop e-learning materials to support health professionals using ASQ-3 as part of the two year review. From October 2015, health visiting providers were asked to report ASQ-3 scores to the Children and Young People’s Health Services dataset, which is being developed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. The dataset is expected to publish its first report in April 2016. Public Health England will draw on ASQ-3 data from the children’s dataset to report the PHOF outcome measure of child development at age 2-2½, reporting on a yearly basis the percentage of children with a positive outcome across all five domains of development in ASQ-3 at age 2-2½. The first reporting of the outcome measure is planned for inclusion in the PHOF in spring 2017.

Transplant Surgery

Mrs Sheryll Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimates he has made of the additional resources needed and the cost of providing additional dialysis capacity for those patients who will no longer be suitable for a kidney transplant and for those patients whose transplant graft fails due as a result of restrictions in the range of immunosuppressant agents that will be introduced if the recommendations of the NICE review of TA 85 [ID456] are upheld at appeal.

Mrs Sheryll Murray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on (a) resourcing of kidney and dialysis care in Plymouth Hospitals and Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trusts and (b) care for kidney patients from South East Cornwall of the recent NICE ruling on provision of immune-suppressant drugs.

Mrs Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the effect on survival rates in kidney patients and on the Domain 1 outcomes of the NHS Outcomes Framework of transplants unsuccessful because of the lack of availability of immunosuppression treatments that the patient can tolerate, following the recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (review of TA 85) [ID456] to restrict access to such agents.

George Freeman: We have made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not yet published its final updated guidance on the use of immunosuppressive therapy for kidney transplant in adults (review of TA85) or on the use of immunosuppressive therapy for kidney transplant in children and young people (review of TA99). NICE is developing resource impact reports to support implementation of its guidance which will be published alongside its final technology appraisal guidance.

Meningitis: Vaccination

Mr David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to urgently consult with medical authorities on ensuring a meningitis B vaccine is provided to all young children; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department last consulted medical authorities on the potential merits of making the meningitis B vaccine available on the NHS for all children; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison: National immunisation programmes are introduced on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the independent expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters. JCVI’s recommendations are based on a comprehensive and careful review of a wide range of evidence including information from medical experts. JCVI reviewed the available evidence on meningitis B vaccine and recommended a national Meningococcal B (MenB) immunisation programme for infants. The MenB vaccine is first offered to babies at 2 months of age, with further doses offered when they reach 4 and 12 months of age. MenB was introduced into the NHS programme in September 2015. JCVI keeps the eligibility criteria of all vaccination programmes under review and considers new evidence as it becomes available. If JCVI provides further advice about the programme, we will consider this.

NHS: Negligence

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26546, when he expects to publish the consultation document on introducing fixed recoverable costs in clinical negligence claims.

Ben Gummer: We are planning to go out to consultation shortly.

Meningitis: Vaccination

Mr David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to meet Mr and Mrs Timmins to discuss the death in 2013  of their son from meningitis B and the future provision of a vaccine for that disease on the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison: Meningococcal B (MenB) disease is a devastating disease which can have tragic consequences. We understand that in March 2014 Mr and Mrs Timmins met consultants at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust to discuss their son’s care following his tragic death in December 2013. In September 2015, we became the first country in the world to offer a national and publicly funded MenB immunisation programme using the Bexsero vaccine to protect infants. The programme follows the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the independent, expert body which advises Government on all immunisation matters. Infants are vaccinated at two months of age, with further doses offered when they reach four and 12 months of age, thereby protecting groups with the highest risk.

Blood: Contamination

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of the £570 million referred to in paragraph 0.5 of his Department's paper, Infected blood: reform of financial and other support, published in January 2016, will be spent in each year of the programme; what the average spend per recipient will be in each such year; and in what categories of spending that funding will fall in each such year.

Jane Ellison: The Department estimates that it would pay out £570 million over the next 45 years, based on the existing unreformed scheme. The Department currently anticipates that it will disburse the same sum under a reformed scheme plus the additional £125 million over the current spending review period of five years. We are currently consulting on the reformed scheme and are unable to estimate the future average annual spend beyond the current spending review or the categories of spend for the period. For the current spending review period the planned expenditure is £47.5 million for each of the next five years.

Blood: Contamination

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of the £390 million funding referred to in paragraph 0.5 of his Department's paper, Infected blood: reform of financial and other support, published in January 2016, was spent in each year to date; and what the average spend per recipient in each such year was.

Jane Ellison: The Department only holds finance data for payments under the Schemes back to 2007. This information is provided below. 2014-15 £22,278,0962013-14 £27,043,5692012-13 £22,052,4582011-12 £27,192,2322010-11 £39,805,6672009-10 £22,461,0572008-09 £19,240,3372007-08 £20,532,461 The figures above include the annual payments to those with HIV and hepatitis C stage 2, and the lump sum payments made on joining the scheme and progressing to hepatitis C stage 2. The fluctuation in amounts between the years reflects the variance in number of people newly coming forward or progressing to hepatitis C stage 2 in each year. The payments to individuals included both discretionary and non-discretionary payments, data on which is only held by the trusts and funds. Therefore, the Department is unable to estimate the levels of individual payments.

Blood: Contamination

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of funding that will be required for those who may need access to the reformed scheme for providing support for people affected by hepatitis C through treatment with NHS-supplied blood or blood products but have not yet been identified.

Jane Ellison: The assumption is that there would be £570 million available from the unreformed scheme, as mentioned in the consultation, and an additional £125 million, identified in the current spending review.

Blood: Contamination

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place in the Library a copy of the full impact assessment of the infected blood scheme reform consultation containing the assessment of the potential financial effects of proposed reforms on recipients; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison: The impact assessment we have prepared is an analysis of the proposals and not the final outcome. We will publish the final full impact assessment when we announce the outcomes of the consultation. On page 32 – 34 of the consultation document itself the Department gives some indication of the impact of the proposed changes on individuals. All respondents to the consultation have been encouraged to say how the proposals will affect them in order that full consideration can be given to this and other issues before any final decisions are made on the reformed scheme.

Colorectal Cancer

Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that approved personalised medicines are available to patients with colorectal cancer.

George Freeman: On 24 September, the NHS England Board agreed the development of a Personalised Medicine Strategy for the National Health Service. Personalised medicine is a move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to the treatment and care of patients with a particular condition. It uses emergent approaches in areas such as diagnostic tests, functional genomic technologies, molecular pathways, data analytics and real time monitoring of conditions to better manage patients’ health and to target therapies to achieve the best outcomes in the management of a patient’s disease or predisposition to disease. The high-level vision and strategy is to create a Personalised Medicine service in the NHS embracing four overarching principles: the prediction and prevention of disease; more precise diagnoses; targeted and personalised interventions; and a more participatory role for patients. The independent Cancer Taskforce’s five-year strategy for cancer, Achieving World-Class Outcomes (July 2015), recommends improvements across the cancer pathway, with the aim of improving survival rates. NHS England is currently working with partners across the health system to determine how best to take forward the recommendations of the Cancer Taskforce. NHS England has appointed Cally Palmer as National Cancer Director to lead on implementation, as well as new cancer vanguards to redesign care and patient experience. She has set up a new Cancer Transformation Board to implement the strategy, and this met for the first time on Monday 25 January. There will also be a Cancer Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Harpal Kumar, to oversee and scrutinise the work of the Transformation Board. The Accelerated Access Review, chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor, will make recommendations to government on reforms to accelerate access for NHS patients to transformative new medicines and technologies making our country the best place in the world to design, develop and deploy these products. The terms of the reference for the review focus on faster access to innovations, which may include personalised medicines for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Prime Minister

UK Membership of EU: Referendums

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Prime Minister, what special advisers have (a) successfully and (b) unsuccessfully sought his permission to work on a EU referendum campaign.

Mr David Cameron: The arrangements for special advisers who wish to work for a campaign are set out in the Cabinet Secretary's letter of 23 February. It is not appropriate to publish personal data about individual special advisers.